Alumni restore tombstones of founding fathers of their fraternity, Phi Delta Theta
Usually once a month for the past five years, brothers of the Ashland/Mansfield Phi Delta Theta Alumni Chapter meet for lunch.
About a dozen or so, give or take a few, attend each time, bouncing from the Ashland and Mansfield areas.
They also like to meet in graveyards.
You read that correctly.
It’s not all fun and games with this group of retired Phi Delta Theta brothers, which includes several Ashland University graduates. AU has had a Phi Delta Theta chapter on campus since 1966 and a fraternity house since 1968.
Twice, Ashland/Mansfield Phi Delta Theta Alumni brothers have come together to clean the gravesites of two of the six founding fathers of Phi Delta Theta: John Wolfe Lindley in Fredericktown, Ohio on June 9, 2023, and Robert Thompson Drake in Lebanon, Ohio, on Oct. 17, 2024.
“Jim’s the guy who got it all going,” Dave Gray, a 1970 AU graduate said about Jim Goode, an Ohio Wesleyan graduate who lives in Mansfield.
“We were all involved,” Goode quickly added during the group’s most recent luncheon at the Black Dog Tavern in Bellville in the Mansfield area, where nine of the brothers enjoyed lunch on a cool, rainy November day.
“It was kind of a group thing. I just did the location stuff,” Goode said earlier in the luncheon talking about the projects to a guest of the group.
Goode came up with the idea to clean the gravesites and included two of his grandsons, who happened to be at his home at the time, in the first cleanup of the grave in Fredericktown, where three other members helped: John Heiser, a 1966 AU graduate; Justin Marotta, a 1972 AU grad; and Eric Behnke, an Oklahoma State graduate who now lives in Mansfield.
“It just took water and a lot of scrubbing,” Goode said. “His son is buried right behind him with a little smaller stone, so we cleaned that one up, too.”
Marotta, a retired greenhouse owner, provided the hoses and most of the cleaning products needed to do the job at both Fredericktown and Lebanon, which included, not only Marotta, Goode, Heiser and Behnke, but also Gray and two other 1970 AU graduates: Ron Whitehill and Tony Magistro, the brother who lives in North Canton.
They were joined by two staff members of the Phi Delta Theta National Headquarters at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where the six founding fathers, collectively known as The Immortal Six, started the fraternity that now has thousands of brothers in chapters on hundreds of college campuses across the country, along with thousands upon thousands of alumni.
Kate Ferguson, director of strategic content, and Jennifer Morrow, senior director of marketing and communications, also brought lunch and recorded their work with photos and video.
“The group reached out to our headquarters to say that they were doing this, so our staff decided to meet up with them and capture this story,” Ferguson said. “Phi Delta Theta is a fraternity that emphasizes lifelong engagement with its members, with the goal of helping them continue to grow and contribute after college, these gentlemen, and their efforts to preserve the history of the organization is a perfect example of lifelong engagement – coming together as a group and finding meaningful ways to honor the brotherhood.”
Their wives also joined them for the weekend in Lebanon.
“We worked from about 10:30/11 a.m. to 2/2:30 p.m., then at around 2:30 p.m., we found a pub for some drinks while our wives went shopping,” Goode said with a big smile. “Then we ate dinner at the Golden Lamb.”
The Golden Lamb is a historic restaurant and hotel billed as the oldest hotel in Ohio that has had several presidents (John Quincy Adams, Ulysses S. Grant and Ronald Reagan to name a few) and other well-known people, including Charles Dickens, as guests during its more than 220-year history.
Phi Delta Theta also has had its share of well-known members, including baseball great Lou Gehrig. According to the fraternity’s national website: Through fundraising, service and awareness efforts, Phi Delta Theta’s membership is committed to supporting the fight against ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig disease, in his honor.
Which founding father will the Ashland/Mansfield Phi Delta Theta Alumni brothers honor next by restoring their gravesite?
John McMillan Wilson, who is buried in Benton, Illinois?
Ardivan Walker Rodgers, who is buried in Brighton, Iowa?
Andrew Watts Rogers, who is buried in Warrenburg, Missouri?
Or Robert Morrison, who is buried in Fulton, Missouri?
Since they aren’t in Ohio, the list won’t expand beyond Lindley and Drake, according to Goode.
However, that may change after Magistro returns from a pheasant hunting trip to Kansas in December that will include a stop at Morrison’s grave.
“We learned some other brothers restored his tombstone,” Goode said. “So, Tony is going to go over there …
“And inspect their work,” Goode continued with a short pause and chuckle, then jokingly added: “If it’s not up to par, we may have to take another road trip.”
