A Narrative By Gary Lowell - Pledged Spring 1964

Phi Kappa Upsilon fraternity, and a friend to (and was inspired by) Russell E. Lawrence is asked to write out his recollections of the events of those formative years. His narrative reveals a love, a mutual dependence, an admiration, and an appreciation for Russell E. Lawrence and his personal vehicle for carrying on his pursuit, the Phi Kappa Upsilon fraternity.40

Legacy

Russell E. Lawrence is revealed to be an inspiring leader, friend, and visionary who has an idea of how to serve a population of men, eager to learn but of modest means, by finding a way to educate them. He does so through a failing economy and while coping with a loss of the platform from which to deliver that education. He does it by transforming those he was trying to serve into first, an advisory board, then a Dynamic Club, and finally a Phi Kappa Upsilon fraternity, and together, they create and sustain a nascent Lawrence Institute of Technology.

Afterward

It is difficult to know exactly the lasting impact of living in those times and being part of the intimately intertwined birth of Lawrence Institute of Technology and Phi Kappa Upsilon. But you can get an idea of that impact from the 1964 obituary of first president of the Dynamic Club, Richard A. Plumb who also spoke at Russell E. Lawrence’s Memorial Service. The obituary lists several of his vocations, “Owned this company, managed that department, and worked for the other.” However, about 1/3 of the space was reserved for something that those close to him must have felt described his avocation - the thing that gave him purpose, peace, and pleasure. It said “He was a founder and past president of the Alpha Chapter and the Supreme Council of the PKU Fraternity at Lawrence Tech and the first president of the University of Detroit Dynamic Club.”41

Acknowledgements

I want to thank Bruce Annett, Jr. and his LTU Marketing and Public Affairs Archives Collection for providing critical non-quoted information for this narrative including copies of several difficult-to-otherwise-find documents.

I also want to acknowledge the assistance of Patricia Higo, Archives and Special Collections Librarian, University of Detroit Mercy Library in tracking down several pieces of elusive information.

And lastly, a hardy thank you to Brother Tim O’Connor, of Phi Kappa Upsilon, for copies of his previous research documents from the Phi Kappa Upsilon archives.

April 3, 2016

Page 11 of 11

1938:

•Adolph Hitler marches into Austria; political and geographical union of Germany and Austria proclaimed.

•Nazis destroy Jewish shops, homes, synagogues in Kristallnacht riots; 20,000- 30,000 sent to concentration camps.

•Munich Pact—Britain,

France, and Italy agree to let

Germany partition

Czechoslovakia.

•Orson Welles broadcasts his adaptation of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds, creating a nationwide panic as listeners believe that aliens have landed in New Jersey.

•Aviator Howard Hughes flies around the world in 3 days and 19 hours, setting a new record.

•Seabiscuit beats War Admiral in the "Race of the Century."

•George and Ladislav Biro

invent the ballpoint pen.

•Chester F. Carlson produces the first xerographic print.

•US Unemployment rate is 19.09%