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Beta Theta News
Sigma Nu Fraternity
Auburn University
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Seniors Enjoy Last Call Hosted by Parents' Club
This group of 32 Seniors enjoyed Last Call at Willow Point Country Club on Lake Martin Saturday, April 22. The event is hosted annually by the Parents' Club
and is yet another quality tradition supported by our Parent Heroes.
This group advanced our chapter during the difficult pandemic
and has enjoyed their entire Sigma Nu experience as a Rock Chapter.
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Travis Rabren, Ray Cobb,
Wilson, and Gaston
Chapter Awards Announced
In keeping with tradition, collegiate recognition awards for 2023 were recently selected. These four awards date back to 1978, 1983, 2008, and 2013, and are named for E. Meade Wilson, Ray Spearman Cobb, Travis L. Rabren, and Maury D. Gaston, respectively.
Each award was created and defined by the active chapter at the time, and selections remain the exclusive decisions of the collegians each spring today. Recognition from peers is substantial because these Brothers know each other best, having lived, studied, played, and worked closely together four years. This particular group of young men experienced unique challenges with the pandemic in their sophomore year, and yet they and their Brothers persevered, maintained, and even advanced our chapter's excellence. The value of fraternity relationships was especially evident as they navigated these years.
None of these recognitions and awards are considered as more important than another. They are each unique, seeking to complement leadership with heritage.
Our chapter is uniquely blessed with History, Tradition, and Heroes, and these chapter awards recognize that History, those Traditions, and our past and future Heroes.
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Chapman Gregory with his mother, Brantley, on Easter Sunday |
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Chapman L. Gregory, Beta Theta 3207, of Montgomery is the 2023 E. Meade Wilson award recipient, presented “to the Brother who Best Exhibits Service and Love to the Fraternity.”
Chapman is an Economics major, will be graduated in December, and plans to work in the renewable energy and fuels industry. Chapman has served as Sentinel.
Chapman reports he is particularly close with our staff, Mike and Miss D in the kitchen and Mr. Willie our House Man. These three serve our actives so well. You may recall we’ve had a series of perfect health department scores.
Chapman said receiving the Wilson award is very special, that as a freshman you look up to the upperclassmen and aspire to become leaders such as them and leave the Fraternity better than when you arrived. He’s honored to be named among this group and said being in Sigma Nu at Auburn has been a tremendous blessing in his life.
Congratulate Chapman at clg0062@auburn.edu.
Ray Cobb Award
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Shown above left to right are Will vonEschenbach; sister Mary Claire, an Auburn Alpha Delta Pi who just completed freshman year; mother, Sally; Dad, Mike;
and twin brother, Thomas, #2 (Lt. Commander) at Auburn Kappa Alpha. Twin brothers both serving as major fraternity Vice Presidents. That’s pretty neat.
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Lt. Commander William J. vonEschenbach, Beta Theta 3180, received the 2023 Ray Spearman Cobb award, presented annually since 1984 to the brother who "exemplifies Ray's qualities of brotherly love, compassion for others, perpetual love of competition and his ability to live life to the fullest."
Will is scheduled to be graduated in August with a Building Science major and a Business minor, heading to Nashville to work with Hardaway Construction. As this newsletter goes to press, Will is experiencing a 40-day tour of European capitals.
Will said the Executive Council teams who pledged in 2017 and 2018 were instrumental in his life through their mentoring and encouragement and that his pledge class of 2019 made his Sigma Nu experience everything he hoped it would be. See the Last Call article above for their group photo. Will added he is grateful to be honored by his peers and if he has “only a pinch” of Ray Cobb’s qualities, he will have done it right.
Travis L. Rabren Award
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Lance Wortman, Rabren Award recipient, with his mother, Jenay;
sister, Jessie, an Auburn Kappa Delta; and father, Clint, Beta Theta 2031.
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Lance Wortman, Beta Theta 3172, is the recipient of the 2023 Travis L. Rabren Servant Leadership Award which is inscribed, "Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be servant of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve." Mark 10:43-45.
Lance is an Agriculture Science major from Dixie, Georgia, and the son of Clint Wortman, Beta Theta 2031. Lance said his father knew Travis and has the highest regard for Travis and his leadership, commenting, “I always heard from my father and his pledge brothers what a great man and Commander Travis was.” This only adds to the meaning and significance of Lance’s receiving the award.
Lance will be graduated in December, and has an internship with Corteva Agriscience this summer in Union City, Tennessee. Lance served as Chaplain last year and counts Lt. Commander and Alpha Affiliate Seth Shirley as an influential mentor in his Sigma Nu experience. Lance added, “This is an award I’ll always remember and cherish the rest of my life.”
Maury D. Gaston Award
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The Dazzio Family. Left to right, George Dazzio (Pledge Class 2016), Dad Tommy Dazzio, Mother Martha Dazzio, Sisters Katy and Maggie Dazzio,
2022 Commander and Gaston Award recipient Pete Dazzio,
and Sister Frances Dazzio (Chapter White Rose, 2020)
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The Maury D. Gaston award was established in 2013 to recognize a Brother “who left the Fraternity better than he found it” and is named in honor of Regent-Elect Maury D. Gaston. This year’s recipient is immediate past Commander Pete Dazzio of Vestavia Hills, Alabama, Beta Theta 3166.
Pete is a Building Science major and will be joining Doster Construction in Birmingham after graduation in December.
Pete said many brothers mentored and guided him including John Tyler Fisher, Seth Shirley, Sam Grey, Cameron Cacace, Harrison Rudd, and Turner McLaughlin. Keen readers will recognize many of those as chapter award recipients themselves. Pete said, “The influence of older guys is a huge part of what made my Sigma Nu experience so special.”
“Receiving the Maury D. Gaston award is a huge honor and means the world to me. Being able to know Maury personally has been a great pleasure, so I was especially pleased when the Brothers made their decision. This is another line on the long list of Sigma Nu experiences I’m very grateful for.”
You can read a spotlight about Pete in a recent newsletter here
Congratulate Commander Dazzio and give him best wishes at pdazzio44@gmail.com.
Each of these four outstanding young men provided exceptional sustained leadership and have contributed to the strong place our chapter finds itself today.
Share with these honorees your Sigma Nu experiences with Ray Cobb, Travis Rabren, or Maury D. Gaston, passing along positive History and Tradition to these emerging Heroes. Thank them for their leadership, and start a relationship with an outstanding young alumnus.
Oral History with Judge Gorman Houston
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J. Gorman Houston, Beta Theta 906, center, served as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court and was Chairman of our chapter capital campaign of about 15 years ago.
His father and brother are also Beta Theta initiates. Judge Houston is a Eufaula native, graduated Auburn in three years in 1953, and enrolled in Alabama Law School, where he served Theta Chapter as Rush Chairman while a first-year law student.
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Undergrads Invite Alumni to Join LinkedIn Page |
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Our undergraduates have created a LinkedIn page to serve as a platform for engagement between and among alumni and collegians.
Jay and Kelly Evers Host Alumni Dinner
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Jay and Kelly Evers hosted early-1980s alumni and wives at their home for dinner on April 27. Shown here, seated, are Jay Evers, Diggie Retief, Jim Moss, and Glen Allen. Standing, Ed Wright, Alan Lott, Chip Powell, Mike Baker, Mike Culwell, Maury Gaston, Mike Lamb, Tom Pankey, Steve Carroll, Chip Dillard, and Charles Kelly.
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Grand Chapter Registration is Now Open |
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The 70th Sigma Nu Grand Chapter will be held June 28 - July 2, 2023, at the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort and Spa in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and registration is now open. At the closing banquet Saturday evening, July 1, our own Maury D. Gaston will be installed as our 68th Regent, the fourth from Beta Theta, following John M. Ward, Robert E. Durham, and J. Lee Perrett. All alumni, their families, and guests are welcome. Registration is now open at
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