Alumni Updates

Due to the coronavirus, the Founders Day celebration and the annual meetings of the Beta Pi Alumni Association and the Alpha Phi Delta Housing Corp. will not be scheduled for this spring in Philadelphia. Although students are back on campus this spring, the prohibition on the gathering of any large group, the difficulty of travel, and other restrictions make it impossible to schedule any in-person Founders Day events. Last year, the meeting of the Beta Pi Alumni Association and the Alpha Phi Delta Housing Corp. was held by Zoom. Further details regarding a Zoom meeting this year will be forthcoming.  

An important message from Joel Catania, Beta Pi ’71:

Our Yahoo group was terminated last month. If you would like to be moved over to our new Google group please send a NEW message to me at: [email protected]  with a subject line of “sign me on to new group”. There are numerous invalid email addresses on the current yahoo group so I will only be subscribing addresses over to the new group if I get an individual request to do so.

At one point our Yahoo group had over 200 confirmed email addresses.  Only 70 have contacted me about signing on to the new group.  I hope to hear from many of you. If you are in contact with any other brothers, please encourage them to get in touch with me if they would like to be added.

On December 8, 2020, Ann Hornaday, chief film critic for the Washington Post, published her list of the best films of 2020. Among those listed, as one of the five best documentaries, was COUP 53, produced by Paul Zaentz, Beta Pi ’69. Ms. Hornaday described COUP 53 as “An ingeniously structured tutorial on the American-British led removal of Iran’s democratically elected leader in 1953, and the action’s disastrous ripple effects”.

Although COUP 53 was the only documentary film on her list that does not have a big streaming service or studio promoting it, this astounding and gripping film will soon be back in virtual theaters. To view COUP 53, go to the website www.coup53.com/screenings-usa/.

On October 10, 2020, Delta Eta Chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha, at the University of Delaware, was reinstated virtually by Pi Kappa Alpha International President Mark C. Dziatczak, Delta Nu ‘91. Originally scheduled for reinstallation on March 20, 2020, the proceedings had to be postponed due to the pandemic. Delta Eta becomes the first provisional chapter to ever be installed or reinstated virtually by PiKA. Members of Beta Pi welcome back Delta Eta. In the past, members of the Delta Eta Chapter were active participants in the annual Scott Mackler MD Ph.D. 5k run/walk. Together, Beta Pi and Delta Eta were major donors and volunteers for this worthy fundraiser to combat the debilitating effects of ALS through their support of the ALS Association of Greater Philadelphia. Hopefully, Delta Eta Chapter will again choose to participate in this event.