Department: Archives
The Letterman’s Jacket of Three Lifetimes
Heirlooms are often thought to be family relics, but sometimes they also commemorate the generations of a fraternity. This Sigma Alpha Epsilon jacket has done both.
In 1941, Alfred R. McClung (Carnegie Mellon ’43) became a member of the Pennsylvania Phi chapter. He purchased the reversible jacket — one side is gold and purple satin with SAE letters and the other side is denim — and had “AL 1943” stitched into the denim side just above the left pocket. Before graduating, McClung gave the jacket to his pledge son, Charles R. Dunfee (Wisconsin- Madison ’46). Dunfee later transferred to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and then the University of Southern California as part of his enrollment in World War II’s V-12 Navy College Training Program. When Dunfee and his wife, Mary, were married in 1946, McClung served as best man.
In 1991, the jacket was passed on once again. Dunfee mailed it to his great-nephew, David A. Kraft (Illinois ’93), who had just become a member of the Illinois Beta chapter at the University of Illinois. Kraft wore the jacket with pride during his college years. This past January, Kraft contacted the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Foundation in an effort to donate the jacket, which he provided along with two letters from Dunfee detailing the heirloom’s history.
