Alumni Rally to Donate $50,000 on SAJ Weekend of Giving 2025

Posting updated March 16

Alumni Rally to Create Another Named Scholarship with record-breaking generosity in the SAJ Campaign!  

The 2025 Stephen Alonzo Jackson Weekend of Giving was the most exciting one to date for Theta-Upsilon as more than 260 gifts poured in during the weekend resulting in $51,002 raised, twice the amount to establish a named scholarship in honor of Brother Dave Ledman IC '81 who joined the Chapter Celestial in December 2024.  

KSTUAA Board voted to nominate him as our "Beloved Brother" candidate for the 2025 Stephen Alonzo Jackson Weekend of Giving campaign, Feb 28 - March 2. In the program when $25,000 is raised a new $1000 annual Scholarship is created.  In the event a chapter raises $50,000 during the weekend, the annual scholarship amount will double to $2,000. All amounts raised shy or in excess of $25K or  $50K will be directed to the existing Chapter Scholarship Fund to benefit specifically Theta-Upsilon undergraduates. Donations can be made starting at midnight February 28 until Sunday March2 at midnight. 

As a result of our efforts Theta-Upsilon  rated #2 in contributions in the country, #5 in total number of donations and First in Ohio generating 57% of the state's $88,750 in donations.  Ohio was 4th in the nation in the number of donations behind, Texas, California and Louisiana.

100% of the Undergraduate members and pledges donated $10.24 to the effort.  Chapters receive 5 bonus points for for FACE for being at 100% in an effort intended to promote life-time of donations. 

More than $5000 was donated by Brother Ledman's family colleagues and friends. 

KSTUAA thanks the brothers that participated in $4000 in Challenge Matches!  

Three Alumni created Challenge Matches to encourage donations from ALL our Theta-Upsilon Alumni. These matches were all met generating over $8000 in donations! 

• 2:1 Match for Alumni from the 70s:  Brother Jim Lewis IC '74 will match every donation two to one from fellow 1970s Theta-Upsilon Alumni up to $2000. HAS BEEN MET 3/1 THANK YOU!!
  
  
• 1:1 Match for Alumni from 1988-1991:  Brother Chris Broome IC '89 will match every donation from Theta-Upsilon Alumni initiated from 1988-1991 up to $1000 total. HAS BEEN MET 3/1 THANK YOU!!

• 10 First Time Donors Challenge:  Brother Wes Bren IC '85 will donate $500 when there are 10 first time donors to the Theta-Upsilon Chapter. HAS BEEN MET 3/1 THANK YOU!!

• Five Donations 1996-2015:  Brother Wes Bren IC '85 will donate $500 when Five Theta-Upsilon Alumni initiated from 1996 to 2015 have made donations this year. HAS BEEN MET 3/1 THANK YOU!!

KSTUAA has added the names of all donors to the donor page on our website and updated this post below. A list of donors can be seen in real time on the Campaign site itself. To visit the Theta-Upsilon Campaign page visit this link:  donate.sajgiving.com/amb/DaveLedman 

Thank you to the Alumni that donated! 

Donations came in from 90+ alumni representing EVERY decade that Theta-Upsilon has existed! (Alumni participated from 54% of the years where we had initiation classes.)  

1967

Robert Coons

Thomas Wenning

1968

Robert Fete

John Willis

1972

Dave Vuicich (70s 2:1 Match)

Ted Newill (70s 2:1 Match)

Craig Stichtenoth (70s 2:1 Match)

Donald Gore (70s 2:1 Match)

1973

John Jahoda (70s 2:1 Match)

1974

Jim Lewis (70s 2:1 Match)

1977

James Cary (70s 2:1 Match)

1978

Robert Pollock (70s 2:1 Match)

David Ciochetty (70s 2:1 Match)

Mark Hollern (70s 2:1 Match)

1979

Mark Morgan (70s 2:1 Match)

Kevin Libert (70s 2:1 Match)

1980

Bill Broderick

Dave Brooks

Tim Corman

Dave Mort

Jay Cavender

Randall Shoker

1981

Christopher Connolly

Jeffrey Davis

Scott Gregory

Scott Hamilton

John Hargreaves

James Hughes

Timothy Solt

Joe Williams

Keith Zurawski

Lou Antonelli

Edward Bash

David Brinkmani

1982

William Wagner

Patrick O'Brien

Brad Mikes

Jay Puccio

1983

Mark Rowland

Mark Gates

Dave Mirolli

1984

Mike White

1985

Geoff Aurini

Ed Bennett

Wes Bren

Chris Elder

John Henry

Chris Scocos

Rick Sippola

1986

Mike McNally

Rob Miller

Scott Richardson

Mike Schoedinger

Dave Bouve

1987

Mark J. Heppner

Mark Loisel

Jeff Meek

John Schoger

Matthew Smith

Jon Stevens

Joseph Turner

1988

Jason Rammes (88-91 Match)

Matt Weaver (88-91 Match)

Jeff Slovak (88-91 Match)

1989

Guy Bradley (88-91 Match)

Patrick Reedy (88-91 Match)

Aaron Ort (88-91 Match)

Chris Broome (88-91 Match)

Jeff Bieber (88-91 Match)

Bill Beringer (88-91 Match)

Barrett East (88-91 Match)

Chad Hague (88-91 Match)

1990

Erik Christman  (88-91 Match)

 Preston Belding (88-91 Match)

Timothy Storer  (88-91 Match)

Clay Hunt  (88-91 Match)

1991

Jonathan Wills (88-91 Match)

1992

Erik Marx 

1994

Andrew Zuchowski

Matt Dixon

1998

Michael Kuhnell (96-15 Challenge)

Joseph Pesci (96-15 Challenge)

Roland Weissman (96-15 Challenge)

2003

Matthew Henning (96-15 Challenge)

2008

Thomas Grusecki Jr. (96-15 Challenge)

2015

Zach Patton (96-15 Challenge)

2022

Fernando Romero 

Nathan Zobrist

Quinn Sippola

Emmett Jones

Brother Dave Ledman

Brother Ledman was a leader, mentor, and lifelong supporter of the Theta-Upsilon Chapter. His impact on the Chapter was profound, serving as Grand Master, Grand Master of Ceremonies, and Grand Scribe during his undergraduate years. As an Alumnus, he continued his dedication to Kappa Sigma, serving on the Theta-Upsilon Housing Corporation board, where he played an important role in paying off the Chapter’s Withrow Avenue property loans.

Beyond his leadership, Dave embodied the Brotherhood, camaraderie, and spirit of Kappa Sigma. His love for golf led him to organize the annual Salt Fork Golf Trip, a tradition he started in 1992 that brought together generations of Brothers for competition, laughter, and unforgettable memories. His legendary sense of humor and dry wit made him the life of any gathering, whether on the golf course or among his closest friends.

Dave graduated from Miami University in 1984 with a degree in Economics before earning his law degree from The Ohio State University in 1987. He built a highly successful law practice, demonstrating the same dedication and sharp intellect that made him a standout leader in Kappa Sigma. 

 

 

The 2025 Fricker Report has been published and its BIG!

We got a little carried away! But the good news is we have published profiles of 44 Alumni in this 42 page full color online issue!  No one said you need to read it ALL, but we bet you'll find something on interest in it! https://bit.ly/FrickerReport2025

Chapter publishes a new Kappa Signal!

The February 2025 issue features an updates and photos on Rush, the Teddy Bear toss charitable event and profiles the EC and the Scholarship award winners.  Click here to see it.   

Super Bowl Squares to Drive Winning Renovation for Chapter House!

Win up to $1000 and help support Chapter Excellence! 

The 2025 edition of the KSTUAA Super Bowl Squares offers a prize pot worth $1000! 

Just $20 per square. Secure your Super Bowl Square today!!!

Helping our Chapter  
The KSTUAA portion (half of proceeds) will help fund the work to complete the brand new Conference/Trophy Room in the Shoe Box. See the write up in the January 12 post and the latest photo here of work in progress.

Thanks to the generosity of alumni over the last year we have raised of $27,500 for this project, but more is need to pay for the project which is expected to cost about $34,000 in total.  (The Commercial grade table, chairs, display cabinets, monito and sound bar/video camera have cost almost $23,000. Additional materials, lighting, security and labor to date have raised the total to $30,000. Additional work will require another $4000)

The room will be/is operational in time for Rush 2025 and the boys are very excited!  

 

The Kappa Sigma Super Bowl Squares Game Format:
The Kappa Sigma Super Bowl Squares is our simple take on a perennial favorite where alumni can pick squares with two numbers that reflect all the possible combinations of the last digit in any score. Pick the square that matches the AFL and NFC teams scores during a quarter end and you are a winner!!! 20% of the prize will be awarded to the winner in each of the first three quarters and 40% of the prize money will be award to the alumnus matching the final score!

Instructions:
Send us the game squares you want e.g. A1, C7, F5, I2, J10 and email to KSTUAA@gmail.com. (Squares are awarded based on the first to reach us, based on email sent times with dues paying Alumni getting priority on ties) Duplicate choices will be assigned nearest open spot by KSTUAA.

The Tables showing available squares will be updated each day: CLICK HERE to see the Table of Available Squares (May need to "right click to download" if it doesn't display)

Make payment with PayPal here. $20 per square for anyone that has paid KSTUAA Dues (so if you haven't paid dues add the $25 KSTUAA Alumni dues) If you already have paid Dues... THANK YOU and its just $20 a square.) You can also use Venmo (@KSTUAA) or personal check. 

Aren't sure if you'd paid your Dues? Check the Donor's page for the list of current donors  and confirm your status (Alumni that have paid KSTUAA dues are highlighted in a light green color). 

Remember extra donations go to pay for this great project. Please be generous!

Grab a beer and see who else shows up when Bracket Master Mikes will pick the column and row numbers Live on Zoom Saturday, February 8 at 1:00 PM ET the day before the big game! 

Then enjoy Super Bowl LIX and win up to $1000 happily knowing you are helping our Chapter!

We will post this years winner here. 

Good Luck and AEKDB

A record Eight Theta-Upsilon members receive scholarship awards from the Kappa Sigma Endowment Fund in December!

Thanks to the generosity of our alumni over the last several years during Stephen Alonzo Jackson Weekend and those alumni that have become Jackson Men our Theta-Upsilon account in the endowment fund has grown to over $80,435.17 which produces one $500+ scholarship for ever $12,500 (six this year) and we have two additional named scholarships for $1000 each.

 

Our members fill in an applications and the process is managed by the Endowment funds with the awards being announced December 10 (Founders Day.) 

Eight very deserving undergraduates from our Theta-Upsilon Chapter received monetary scholarship wards from the Kappa Sigma Endowment Fund this fall.

• Brother Andrew Rossi IC '2, Grand Procurator, Past Scholarship Chair - Winner of the $1000 Clifford Browne II Named Scholarship
• Brother Luke Hastings IC '22, Past Grand Scribe, Past Alumni Relations Chair - Winner of the $1000 Brian P. McDowell Named Scholarship
• Brother Ben Bayler IC '23, 
• Brother Mark Colavita IC '22,
• Brother Ryan Kellogg IC '24, Grand Treasurer
• Brother Patrick Miller IC '22, Past Grand Master, Past AGC Chair
• Brother Zachary Sharpe IC '24,
• Brother Michael Skidmore IC '24,

Alumni are reminded that during Stephen Alonzo Jackson Weekend of Giving 100% of donations go to the designated chapter.  Our alumni have been amazing!  Please check out some of the details. 

If you would like to help get the word out to make sure this year's campaign is another success, contact Wes at KSTUAA@gmail. 

KSTUAA votes to honor Dave Ledman in SAJ Weekend of Giving 2025

The KSTUAA Board voted to submit the name of Dave Ledman '81 who joined the Chapter celestial in December to the Kappa Sigma Endowment Fund as our "Beloved Brother" candidate for the 2025 Stephen Alonzo Jackson Weekend of Giving, Feb 28-March 2. 

The program introduced last year enables chapters to apply all the donations from the weekend to create an annual $1000 scholarship in the brothers name. To create an annual $1000 Scholarship, $25,000 must be raised. Last year 16 new annual scholarships were created through this program in its first year. Theta-Upsilon created two similar $1000 annual scholarships in the name of Brother Browne and McDowell last year but not through the "Beloved Brother" Program.     

Brother Ledman served the Chapter as Grand Master, Grand Master of Ceremonies and Grand Scribe. As an alumnus, Dave also served on the Theta Upsilon Housing Company board for multiple years and was one of the officers that guided the process of paying off the loans for the Withrow Avenue properties.  

Dave was an avid golfer and organized an annual golf trip to Salt Fork State Park for fraternity brothers in the Cleveland area starting in 1992. His brothers fondly remember the beautiful locale which featured ridiculous difficulties and the phrase "get forked" when you have been invariably ambushed by one of its many pitfalls.

It is perhaps no surprise then that Dave was also a winner of the KSTUAA 2016 Fricker Cup (along with Brother Rick Sippola '85) held in Cleveland and appropriate that he become the first ever victim of the Eddie Fricker Switcheroo Card on the first hole! The odd-ball rule forced Dave to play Brother Scott Hamilton's ball that had been shanked and landed 25 feet left of the tee-box behind some shrubbery while Scott was free to play Dave's beautiful drive in the fairway! Such is the love shared by pledge brothers of the 1981 pledge class.  

After graduating from Miami in 1984, Dave went on to complete his law degree from The Ohio State University Law School in 1987. After working for a big litigator in Cleveland, Dave started his own firm handling a wide variety of cases all over Ohio while simultaneously taking on a diverse array of transactional work for countless clients.  

KSTUAA extended its sympathy on behalf of all Theta-Upsilon by sending flowers to his wife Aly. Additional details about Dave and services can be found on legacy's website.  

Work on Trophy/Conference Room Begins 

The KSTUAA Chapter Advisory Council finalized its selections this fall and contracted with the TUHC contractor to complete work on an important amenity to the Chapter House, a small Conference Room/Trophy room designed to promote Chapter Excellence.

In the old formulation of the Chapter House where the Stone House at 404 E. Withrow was recognized as a Fraternity House, there was a room with a trophy case and a large room at the back of the house that prompted KSTUAA to raise money to create a conference room in 2012.  However the loss of the Charter and later the Oxford property designation of the facilities as a "fraternity" when the Stone House was renovated into two apartments and Shoe Box was leased to Crossroads Church resulted in these common areas being lost.

The new Trophy/Conference room will be located in the Shoe Box in an old "triple" near the TV Lounge that Alumni helped furnish in 2022.   The room will support small meetings and studying, video conference meetings between the EC and advisors and alumni. It will also be used to to display the Charters from 1967 and 2022, the Hall of Fame Plaque, other awards and memorabilia etc. One of the trophy cases will hold more historical artifacts like the original Star & Crescent Fraternity pin, early documents and awards etc and the second display case will include current day chapter awards from Kappa Sigma and Miami. The room will feature a combination lock and security camera to discourage theft and vandalism.     

Alumni have been asked to make donations to help finish the project which will be about 90% done before 2025 Rush. and the KSTUAA Board designated funds raised in the 2025 Super Bowl squares and Cossa Challenge to fund this project and the work of the CAC. Donation of any amount are welcome and may be made as directed on the Dues, Donations & Funding page.

To date several alumni have been very generous and have donated or promised donations to help us close the gap on the funds needed to complete the project. (see list below) 

Images: (Top) Slide documenting the plan for the project. (Middle) the rendering of the Executive committee conference table, two display cases. The room will also display the Charters and other awards. (Bottom) Work in December including newly painted walls (same color green used in Charlottesville.) 

Thank you to the following alumni for their recent donations to fund this project:

• Chuck Hess '67 HOF 2024
• Alan Higgins '67 HOF 2022
• Tom Wenning '67 HOF 2012
• Jim Lewis '74  HOF 2022, KSTUAA Board, Treasurer, Housing Company Board
• David Ciochetty '78 HOF 2022
• Charles Wonderlic '83 HOF 2017
• Wes Bren '85 HOF 2017, KSTUAA Board, CAC, DGM
• Mark Heppner '87 
• Chris Broome '89 HOF 2024, CAC

New HOF Nominating Committee Begins Work for 2025 

The 2025 HOF Nominating Committee has begun work processing nominations submitted by December 15, 2024 for consideration for election for induction into our Hall of Fame. 31 Alumni have been inducted since it began in 2000. 

The while the criteria remains the same to focus on contributions to their profession, community or to the Kappa Sigma Fraternity and Theta-Upsilon Chapter as alumni (not as undergraduates) the process was updated in 2022 so that the HOF Nominating committee now collects nominations and creates comprehensive profiles for use by the inducted members of the Hall of Fame to vote on. 

Annual recognition will be scheduled for Homecoming weekends except during the 5 year reunions. A plaque displaying these inductees has been created will be displayed in the Chapter house as a reminder to undergraduate members that their oath to live by the ideals of the Star and Crescent extends beyond college.  

KSTUAA in an effort consistent with its first Great Aim: Inclusivity-Engage All of our Theta-Upsilon Alumni worked hard to recruit members from multiple decades resulting in this years committee representing six decades!  It is our aspiration that this will promote more nominations from all our alumni of those deserving recognition.  To date alumni from 1967-2002 have been inducted.      

Thank you those that volunteered to serve as HOF Nominating Committee members for 2025: 

• Rick Sippola ’85 Chairman,
• George Duffield ’67,
• Dave Vuicich ’72 
• Christian, Essman '92 
• Thomas Grusecki Jr. '08
• Gabe Johnson '22
• The Alumni Relations Chair: Evan Love '24