[24969] in APO-L
[APO-L] Frank McMullan & Tau Pi chapter (Del State)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Michael Gallagher)
Fri Feb 10 20:46:28 2006
Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 20:45:46 -0500
Reply-To: Michael Gallagher <famtree@UDel.Edu>
From: Michael Gallagher <famtree@UDel.Edu>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
Brothers,
I'm writing a endorsement letter for my chapter's DSK and McMullan
awards. Our McMullan award honors John Franklin Shields McMullan,
restarter of our chapter, better know as Frank and recipent of the
National DSK & pledgeclass namesake.
If any of you have any information on him beyond what I have below,
please let me know. Particularly, I'm looking for WHEN he was Tau Pi's
advisor, as I can't even refind my source of his being it. I can't even
find his death records online. Any Tau Pi alums or other HBCU alums on
here may be especially helpful. There are only '68 and '70 initiates
listed online, so perhaps it existed for 3 years actively? My impression
though is that Frank advised them for decades.
In LFS,
Michael Gallagher
Historian, Zeta Sigma Chapter (UDel)
Frank McMullan joined Zeta Sigma Chapter in 1952. He folded the chapter
and left to serve in US Army for three years: 1952-55. He then returned
to school and restarted chapter with Bill McLain, who was not yet a
brother, in Spring 1955, leaving and/or graduating in 1959-60. He was
president 1955-9, and Governor Boggs was made an honorary Brother in
1959 during his term. 1955 saw the admittance of the first black student
to UD, and he was accepted as a pledge, in a time when doing so was not
popular. The chapter office was complimented in the /Torch & Trefoil/ in
Spring 1956 a workshop by McLain in Fall 1956. Frank was a delegate to
the 1958 National Convention, and in April Frank was awarded the
Distinguished Service Key along with Bill McLain and Tom Spackman for
outstanding service of the past several years. Frank was chapter vice
president in 1960, and after leaving was a UD football assistant & head
coach. He served as an advisor to the Tau Pi chapter for several years.
In 1972, he helped fill in gaps in the chapter history. At the 1972
National Convention, the Fraternity was in bad shape financially, so he
anonymously donated a large sum of money to help out; he was persuaded
to allow himself to be named at a convention dinner (probably awards)
and challenged all there to meet it, beginning a flood of donations by
delegates; eventual total donations were over $6,000 (purchasing power
of a bit more than $26,000 in 2003 dollars). Frank helped contact alumni
about the 25^th anniversary celebration for Spring 1973, where he was
awarded the Founder’s Award for service to the National Fraternity.
Further National honors heaped upon him for his work at the convention.
He was featured on the front cover of the Fall 1973 /Torch & Trefoil/
along with an article in the issue about him and his work for the
national fraternity. He was named the National Pledge Class Namesake in
1973 and awarded the National Distinguished Service Key in 1976,
becoming the first person in the history of the fraternity to be awarded
the chapter, regional, and national Distinguished Service Keys. Frank
was an accountant by trade, and an alumni brother informed me somewhat
recently that a brother who was an accountant helped with Book Exchange
finances in 1978 when the Active running it (the alumnus) believed
strongly the chapter would be audited due to the thousands of dollars of
revenue it brought in. Frank died in1982 or 1983. He had “a debilitating
disease” as memorialized by National Board February, 1983. His
accomplishments were great despite this disease. After his death,
Brother Joe Walsh suggested the creation of the award to honor Frank and
perpetuate his memory.
