Page 119 - Kappa Eta 40th Anniversary History Book

The Late 1970’s Reflections

Darrell Gunter KH Fall 1977

It was the fall of 1977 and Charles Graham the Basileus of Kappa Eta and his
chapter brothers were preparing for their final year at Seton Hall University.
While they were pondering their respective graduation and next steps in their
lives, there was a larger issue that was looming over the chapter. The looming
issue was that they were all graduating from Seton Hall University and they were
concerned about the future of Kappa Eta as the chapter just celebrated their 2nd
anniversary. The thought of the chapter becoming inactive after just two years
of existence was not going to happen under their watch. Brother Graham had a
plan and it included two first semester freshman Darrell Gunter and Ray
Harrison. Normally Freshman was not allowed to pledge but considering that
they had 7 credits from attending the EOP summer program and having the
support of 2nd District Representative Brother Adam McKee, they were allow to
pledge that fall semester. Brother Clark was their Dean of Pledges and he
proved to be the right mentor for these two young brothers. While this line was
a good line sometimes they would drive their DP crazy such as when they were
kidnapped down to Trenton State College. Brother Clark being the great DP that
he was drove down that evening to get retrieve his lamps. The line pledged for
11 weeks and their hell week carried them through final exams. Finally on
December 16, 1977 they had crossed the burning sands.

For Brother Graham and the brothers of KH they could breathe a sigh of relief as
their legacy and the future of KH was secured. You see the line that pledged the
spring of 1977 had dropped. To get things going Brother Graham and Clark
along with the other brothers of KH had a smoker that yielded a line of 6
lampados. Brother Gunter and Harrison were their Dean of Pledges. The line
got started and early in the process, the line advised us that all but one of them
were dropping. This line was a line of upper classmen and the brothers were
puzzled as to why the five lampados were quitting. The lone lampados that did
not quit was Ronald D. Hollis. Doug as he liked to be called was a phenomenal
lampados. He did everything that was requested of him and never complained
faltered or showed any fear. He crossed the burning sands and thus KH was
catching its stride.

On the yard, Brother Ray Harrison was a star on the football team and Brother
Graham was spending considerable time with Brother Gunter teaching how the
politics of the campus worked and whom he needed to connect within the

Kappa Eta 1975-2015 ver June-25-2016 Page 118