Sometimes the best-laid plans don’t turn out as we’d like—even after multiple attempts. On December 5, 1953, as the Sigma Delta local fraternity became the Ohio Lambda chapter, the members voted to add former Temple artist Mathias Noheimer to the official register of Sigma Delta alumni. Regulations required that non-student initiations only occurred when a chapter was installed and the initiate was an alumnus of the local Fraternity that would become the chapter. But Noheimer was not able to attend the installation. ESR John O. Moseley (Oklahoma ’16) wrote to his friend and indicated that they could perform his initiation at another chapter at a later date.

Two years later, Ohio Epsilon EDA Zeke Hyat (Cincinnati ’56) wrote to ESR Rex A. Smith (Nebraska ’24) to request Noheimer’s initiation again. Smith and Hyat secured the necessary approvals and set the date for Ohio Epsilon to initiate Noheimer on behalf of Ohio Lambda. At the last minute, fate once again intervened, and Noheimer could not attend. Records do not show that any further efforts were made to initiate Noheimer.

He had long been a friend of the Fraternity. Alfred K. Nippert, Chairman of the Temple Building Committee, hired the award-winning artist and instructor to paint various murals and portraits throughout the building. After a long career, Noheimer retired in 1971 and moved to Vermont. He passed away in 1981 at age 72.

When the documents regarding Noheimer’s missed initations were discovered, they were shared with Ohio Epsilon, and its men requested his initiation once again. The Supreme Council approved the request, and this August, Noheimer will be posthumously initiated at the 76th John O. Moseley Leadership School.

When Noble Leslie DeVotie left the University of Alabama in 1856, he turned the reins of the Fraternity over to the next generation. And while we have seen photographs and drawings of him, we actually know very little about DeVotie related to his feelings about Sigma Alpha Epsilon. His writings contain few references to our Founding Fathers and never mention the Fraternity. Therefore, to understand the life of our most notable member, we have to dig deeper – and turn back the clock to a previous generation of men who took it upon themselves to piece together the life of our elusive principal Founder. William C. Levere (Northwestern 1898) led that charge. The story of this young man, whose promising life was cut short, fascinated him. Not much information was available about DeVotie. He could only draw on a few articles in The Record and a couple of pictures. Surely he could find people who remembered him and could help to piece together the story of his life.

Levere scoured the country. He contacted DeVotie’s friends, schoolmates, colleagues and his stepmother, Mrs. G. L. A. DeVotie, one of two family members who were still alive. Letters poured in. After nearly 50 years since their college days, some of Noble’s former classmates had vivid recollections of him. A few pictures arrived as well, but the great treasure arrived from Mrs. DeVotie. She had married Noble’s father, Dr. James H. DeVotie in 1873, 12 years after Noble’s death. Against the wishes of her family, Mrs. DeVotie kept an archive of letters, magazines, books, artifacts and multiple volumes of Noble’s diary. She had a vibrant correspondence with Levere and sent the materials to Evanston, relaying the story of Noble’s life as it had been told to her by her husband and Noble’s youngest brother Jewett (Alabama 1859). Levere used all of this information to write a biography, The Life of Noble Leslie DeVotie, which appeared as a serial in The Record from 1906 to 1910 and later in his 1911 History of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity.

The archives still contains the materials Levere used to write his biography. These papers give us an intimate account of the last 18 months of DeVotie’s life and death. He was embarking on his career, transitioning from student to professional and navigating those trials that mark this transitional period.

Who was Noble Leslie DeVotie? He was the oldest of four siblings. He was named for his mother, Margaret Christian Noble, and her side of the family. Jewett described him as “…our pride, the idol of my parents hearts, and the hope of the whole family.” He was a petite man, weighing about 110-120 pounds. Former schoolmates remarked on his small stature and frail appearance. He suffered from severe headaches and periods of self-doubt. But he was a lion in the guise of a lamb. He was a man who knew his mind, had a strong sense of morality and was not afraid to do the right thing, regardless of the consequences. Former classmate James S. Quarles wrote that “He was one of those men that draw you to them, open-hearted, magnanimous, magnetic.” From the age of 11, when he was baptized into the Baptist Church, his faith was firm and unshakable, and he was determined to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a minister. He was a gifted writer, orator and skilled debater. He smoked cigars and loved to read. He would occasionally go hunting, but seldom reported any success. Most of all, DeVotie loved his family and friends deeply.

Diaries are a wonderful source of information. Through them we can learn about a person’s desires, hopes and dreams, as well as the events of his life. Sometimes the diary itself can tell us about the times in which the diarist lived and the technology available to him.

Noble Leslie DeVotie selected a rather unusual choice for his 1860 diary, Francis’ Highly Improved Manifold Writer, which was produced by the Francis & Loutrel Company of New York. Manifold writers were first produced in 1806 and allowed the writer to produce one or more copies of a letter or document. This book originally contained about 200 pages of lined tissue paper, several loose sheets of double-sided carbon paper, two styluses (now lost) and several blotting pages. The directions, written in English, French and Spanish, instructed the writer to open to a new page in the book, place his letter paper behind it and sandwich a sheet of carbon paper in the middle.

As he wrote with the stylus, the double-sided paper would make a positive impression on the letter paper and a reversed image on the back of the tissue paper. The writer then could see through the tissue paper so he could see what he was writing and read it later. At the same time, the blotting page prevented the writer’s sleeve buttons from making an impression on his letter. Our archives contain two additional manifold writers in which DeVotie recorded letters to his parents, relatives and friends.

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.

As the archivist for the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Foundation, I have the opportunity to meet some fascinating people. Some I meet when they donate an artifact to the collection, some when they have a research question to be answered. Still others I am only able to get to know something about through the artifacts and documents they leave behind. But this past June, I had the great fortune to meet the daughter of a remarkable brother — and to learn more about her father’s contribution to Sigma Alpha Epsilon — when Anna Carugati, along with her husband and daughter, decided to visit the Levere Memorial Temple.

The family was in town to see Carugati’s son graduate from the University of Chicago. Anna, though, was hoping to see a painting or two at the national headquarters. She knew that her father had been heavily involved with the Fraternity, so she wondered how many pieces of his work we had in our collection. She mentioned that he had done several paintings for the organization over the years in his own unique, photorealistic style. His name, Eraldo Carugati (Simpson ’41), wasn’t familiar to me, but I knew we had several unsigned paintings in our collection.

As we walked through the Temple, we stopped at several paintings. Many, she said, appeared to be her father’s work, but since he seldom signed his pieces, we weren’t completely sure. Then she stopped in front of a painting of former Eminent Supreme Archon Rex A. Smith (Nebraska ’24). Smith was depicted wearing a dark blue suit and maroon tie, leaning on a pedestal that reflected his folded hands and onyx ring. “This is his,” she said. “I remember him painting that ring.” Anna went on to explain that her father loved painting hands and other fine details such as drops of water or the bricks in a wall. The Smith portrait, it seemed, was a summary of the Carugati style. We also looked at a painting of former ESA Fred H. Turner (Illinois ’22). Turner was shown lighting a pipe, his hands and face represented with equal precision — and again, Anna confirmed her father’s handiwork.

Carugati had passed away more than a decade ago. Tragically, most of her father’s work had been destroyed in a fire. The family was devastated by the loss, so Anna felt even more close to her father’s work while she spent time at the Temple. After a few more minutes of discussion and some more time admiring the paintings, Anna left with her family, but I was left to wonder: Just who was Eraldo Carugati? What other pieces had he painted for the Fraternity? Fortunately, two articles about Carugati that appeared in The Record in 1979 and 1984 provided some answers.

His story begins in 1935, in the city of Milan, Italy, when the 14-year-old Carugati was forced to drop out of school and to work full-time to help support his family. His life wasn’t all about making money, however, and he continued his studies by enrolling in the night program of the Suola Superiore D’Arti Applicate. Of the more than 4,000 applicants to the prestigious program, Carugati was one of just 300 accepted — and one of only seven to graduate from the grueling seven-day- per-week program. But just before his graduation in 1941, Carugati was drafted into the Italian army to fight in the next conflict that would engulf most of the world.

In 1943, he was captured by the Nazis and spent the next two years being shuttled between various Nazi POW camps, or stalags. As the conflict drew to a close and the Allied forces began their final push against the Third Reich, Carugati and a few other prisoners were able to escape from Stalag VI-D in Dortmund, Germany. They ran by night and hid by day, fearing that their POW uniforms would give them away if they were caught. Eventually they reached the lines of the Allied troops and were taken in, fed and clothed. Carugati, like many Italians of his generation, grew up with a sense of awe for all things American so, when he saw that the Americans treated even the lowest-ranking man with respect, he decided on the spot to become a citizen of the United States.

In the past two years, much information about Georgia Pi at the Georgia Military Institute has come to light. One of the treasures from Georgia Pi that has made its way to the Temple is a daguerreotype, dated to around 1857, that may be a group image of the chapter. If all the men in this image can be identified as Georgia Pi members, then this will be the oldest chapter photo in the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Foundation’s collection.

The donor, James M. Gilmer (Tennessee-Knoxville 1946), identified his grandfather, James Nicholas Gilmer, as the first person in the front row. The other men in the image have not been definitively identified but may be the remaining six charter members: Samuel Barry Brooks, William Henry Dickinson, Joel Robert Griffin, John Summerfield Lanier, Christopher Columbus Sanders and GMI professor Raleigh Spinks Camp. Vernon Henry Vaughan, who is also considered a chapter founder despite his affiliation with Tennessee Nu since he influenced the GMI faculty to accept the Georgia Pi chapter, does not appear in the image.

Five of the seven men in the image also wear their SAE badges. In addition, two of the badges in the front row appear to be shield-shaped — which are believed to be the badges of school-sponsored literary societies, since similar badges can be seen in other images of GMI students. Of the seven founders of Georgia Pi, five served as president of one of the two literary societies.

After graduating from GMI, the chapter founders fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War. Brooks was killed at the Battle of Seven Pines. Camp died shortly after the end of the war. Dickinson and Lanier both became planters. Gilmer was a cotton broker and later became very active with the Washington Alpha chapter. Griffin served as Superintendent of Andersonville Prison Camp in 1865 and served two terms in the Georgia Legislature. Sanders still has the distinction of being the only Confederate to be memorialized in a statue on federal property but, unfortunately, the statue was destroyed by a tornado in the 1930s. Vaughan served as acting governor of the Utah Territory from 1870-1871.

Founder Abner Patton probably never imagined the adventures and travels he would take over the years. From just a few surviving images of his likeness, he would be recreated in paintings, sketches and lithographs during the 153 years since he became Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s first president. Levere Memorial Temple artist Johannes Waller created at least two oil paintings of Patton. Waller was often instructed to paint multiple portraits of a single subject, one that would remain at the Temple and the other that would be sent to a chapter that was connected to the subject in some way. When Waller completed a second painting of Patton in 1938 from a newly acquired image, the Supreme Council voted to hang it in the Founders Room. The other original was given to Virginia Tau at the University of Richmond, where Patton died in 1863.

Virginia Tau hung the portrait in its house. In 1942, the painting appeared in the background of a photograph taken at the house — but then it disappeared. During World War II, the chapter was forced to give up its house for military use, and members suspected the painting was relocated for safekeeping. After the war, the chapter rented a new house, later replaced by a university-owned lodge.

In December 2008, the Foundation received a call from a man who had purchased the painting from a Florida estate and planned to sell it at auction. Through the generosity of Cliff Yee (Richmond ’97), the painting was purchased at auction and is on loan to the Foundation. The painting will be displayed at the Temple temporarily and then returned to Virginia Tau.

It all started innocently enough. The e-mail read: “My family has a book belonging to your organization, I believe it to be written in the 1860’s. The book has been in my family for a very long time. It is hand written and includes all the names of those who were members, along with the by-laws for Sigma Alpha Epsilon. All students listed were from Tennessee. Although a SAE member from Macon GA. Did sign the last page.” [sic]

These few simple lines were the start of a mystery that lead to what may be the best, and the most important, new source of early Sigma Alpha Epsilon history in recent memory.

Correspondence with the book’s owner’s son began to produce clues. The book contained the statement “We, the students of the College of William and Mary,” but the book’s owner had checked with school records, and none of the student names matched the college’s student list. The book also indicated that it was an original copy written by Henry R. Goetchius (Georgia 1871) of Columbus, Georgia. The book contained several autographs as well: Four presidents of Georgia Psi at Mercer from 1876-1878 signed the book, along with chapter brothers Lovick R. Jeter (1875) and Methuen T. Freeman (1879). Freeman’s signature indicated that he was a delegate to the Richmond Convention in 1877.

The mystery continued. What chapter had students almost exclusively from Tennessee? According to early Fraternity catalogues, the only one that met the criteria was Tennessee Lambda at Cumberland, during the period from 1867-1871. What could all of this mean? What did Virginia Kappa, Georgia Beta, Georgia Psi and Tennessee Lambda have to do with each other in a book that appeared to span two decades and a civil war? And how did this book happen to be in a family for at least four generations with no known Sigma Alpha Epsilon ancestors?

After some correspondence and discussion with the book’s owner, Kathleen Vanscoy, and her son, Robert Sellers, the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Foundation was able to secure the book, on loan, for a year so that we may be able to study, photograph and exhibit it while learning from this valuable resource. The book, a small red ledger with numbered pages, arrived late in the afternoon of October 3, 2008, and brought with it even more questions.