BETA XI OF SIGMA CHI, APRIL 1916 INITIATES

(This list was compiled from a list of twenty-nine names in the April 24, 1916,
edition of The Albuquerque Morning Journal, with the addition of two names of men
who were mentioned in other public sources. Post -UNM information was primarily
obtained from public obituaries and online genealogy sources. Sigma Chi records in
Evanston, Illinois, thanks to Brother Gary Rawlings, provided a final reference.)

ALBRIGHT, ELWOOD MILLS, 1889-1952. Born in Albuquerque, his father George
was a partner with Ward Anderson in the printing business. At UNM he showed his
talent in editing the UNM Weekly, 1905-06, and the Mirage in 1908. According to an
article in the December 22, 1908 Albuquerque Journal, Albright was one of the
founders of the “Tau Delta Tau” local at UNM. In 1912 he was working as a
cartoonist in Albuquerque. At the time he registered for the WWI draft in June of
1917, he was working for the State Engineer in Santa Fe as a draftsman. During the
1920s he moved to New York City where he lived for the rest of his life working as a
graphic artist. On August 19, 1952, he died of a stroke while visiting his sister in
Albuquerque. Although the article on page 16 of The Albuquerque Tribune notes that
he was a charter member of Sigma Chi at UNM. His list of pallbearers in the
Albuquerque Journal August 21, 1952, included a “Who’s Who” of Albuquerque Sigma
Chi: Pearce Rodey, Ed Ross, Kenneth Balcomb and W.A. Keleher. It also included
prominent Albuquerque businessman, Charles Lembke, a member of the Alpha
Alpha Alpha local at UNM, which became the Pi Kappa Alpha chapter. Albright was
buried at the Fairview Cemetery on South Yale in Albuquerque.

AYDELOTTE, CARL E., 1893-1966. Carl was born in Corydon, Indiana, lived in
Missouri in 1900 and then Roswell, New Mexico. Carl started at UNM in 1915,
played at least one year on the football team and majored in engineering. He
enlisted in the U.S. Navy in June of 1917. In 1920 he was back home in Roswell
working as a surveyor. His work in engineering took him to Texas and when he
registered for the draft in 1942, he was working for the Texas State Highway
Department. Carl died of cancer in 1966 in Euless, Arlington County, Texas.

BALCOMB, KENNETH CHESTER, 1891-1979. Balcomb was born in Denver,
Colorado, but his parents moved to Albuquerque early enough to give him a unique
perspective he later turned into a book: A Boy’s Albuquerque, 1898-1912. 1912 was
the year he graduated from Albuquerque High and entered UNM. At UNM was
captain of the football team and President of the Dramatic Club in 1915. He was
initiated with the April 1916 group into Sigma Chi and that year received his B.S. in
civil engineering. He was an engineer at the U.S. Office of Public Works in 1918 and
left to enlist in the Army. Subsequent to WWI, he worded as an engineer and was
one of the Albuquerque business leaders in insurance and real estate. In 1929, he
was a partner in Anderman, Balcomb and Glasebrook, his partners being two of the
most significant developers of Albuquerque. That same year he gave the speech
describing the reason why UNM had named its new gymnasium for his fellow
football player and Sigma Chi, Hugh A. Carlisle. By 1938 he was employed by the
United States Soil Conservation Commission. Retiring from the government job in
1952, Balcomb moved to Apache Junction, Arizona where he died on Christmas Day
in 1979. Balcomb was buried at Sunset Memorial Park in Albuquerque in January of
1980.

BARNES, ROBERT W. Barnes was at UNM for two years, 1915-1917 and, in
addition to membership in Sigma Tau/Sigma Chi, played in the marching band.

BATEMAN, HOWARD SAISSELIN, 1892-1967. Born in Colorado Springs, Colorado,
Batemen finished his secondary education in Denver. His father worked for the
railroad and moved his family shortly thereafter to Albuquerque. At UNM, he played
both football and baseball and majored in civil engineering. He first taught math in
Deming, N.M. and he then entered the Army in May 1918, serving in the infantry
until April of 1919. By 1920 he was located in Effingham, Illinois working as an
engineer for the Illinois Highway Department. He died in California in 1967.

BROREIN, CARL DAVID, 1895-1973. Born in Buckland, Ohio, at UNM he was on
both the football team and the debate team and won the State Oratorical Contest.
Brorein played an important part in several Sigma Tau/Sigma Chi “Follies.”
Following graduation with a major in economics in 1917 he enlisted and was
commissioned a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps. His Marine photo is included in
the 1919 UNM Bulletin honoring participants in the war. Discharged in August of
1919, he joined his uncle who was head of the Pennisular Telephone Company in
Tampa, Florida. Following the death of his uncle, Brorein became president of the
company in 1938. At the time of his retirement in the 1960’s he had also played a
major role in the development of the U.S. telephone system and had served as
president of the Florida Chamber of Commerce and Vice-President of the U. S.
Chamber of Commerce. He is honored today with a “Brorein Street” and the
“Brorein Bridge” over the Hillsborough River in Tampa. He died in Tampa in 1973.

BRUCE, ALLEN ELI, 1895-1985. Born in Kentucky, he moved to Albuquerque with
his parents before entering UNM. At UNM he was on the debate team while
majoring in economics and received his BA in1917. He finished his course work in
December of 1916 and started working in the insurance business in Albuquerque.
He was drafted in May of 1918 and was stationed at Fort Funston, Kansas until his
discharge. He continued his insurance career in Albuquerque, eventually moving to
El Paso, Texas where he was a partner in an independent insurance agency. He died
in San Antonio, Texas in 1985.

BRYAN, HUGH McCLELLAN, 1890-1956. Born in Albuquerque, Hugh’s parents had
come to New Mexico in 1882 when his father, Richard, became superintendent of
the Presbyterian Indian School. (Richard Bryan was admitted to the Bar in 1888
and practiced law in Albuquerque until his death in 1913.) Hugh played on the
baseball team and appeared in many theatrical productions. He finished at UNM in
1909 and then attended Princeton University. He was chosen a Rhodes Scholar in
1910. He spent part of his time in Europe in Germany’s Black Forest and, after his
return to the United States, became a U.S. Forest Ranger, work he would continue
until his death. He was promoted to a supervisory position and eventually
transferred to Utah. [Bryan was among the Sigma Tau who presented the last,
successful, request to the Sigma Chi convention in August 1915, but he was unable
to attend the initiation on April 22, 1916. He was initiated at Beta Xi in September
of 1916.] He died at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota in 1956 and was buried in Salt
Lake City, Utah.

CARLISLE, HUGH ARTHUR, 1890-1918. Perhaps the best known of the 1916
initiates by reason of his death in transit to France in WWI and the naming of
institutions and places in his honor. See the full biography on the Beta Xi website.

CLARKE, CHARLES RAE, 1893-1982. Born in Brainerd, Minnesota, Clarke and his
family moved to Albuquerque before 1910 where his father worked as a machinist
for the railroad. Charles attended Albuquerque High and played the coronet in the
orchestra, graduating in 1914. He then attended UNM for two years and left to work
for the Continental Oil Company. Charles enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1917 and
served in the Navy Band through May of 1919. He then went to work for Standard
Oil in San Diego, later working for the company in Los Angeles. He died in San Diego
in 1982.

FRANK, HARRY McCLAIN, 1891-1933. Born in Columbus, Ohio, and he is shown in
the 1910 census as working for the U.S. Forest Service in Albuquerque. Apparently
he attended school part time and in 1916 he is still in the City Directory as an
employee of the U.S. Forest Service. If he kept a low profile as a Sigma Tau and then
Sigma Chi, he was “rewarded” by his brothers by being named the first president of
the Albuquerque Sigma Chi Alumni Chapter in June of 1917. In 1920, Harry was
working as district manager for a fire insurance company in Albuquerque and soon
thereafter continued in that business in Phoenix, Arizona. Harry Frank died
unexpectedly on a trip to Seligman, Arizona on March 4, 1933, and was buried in
Sunset Memorial Park in Albuquerque the following week.

GOUIN, WALTER FRANCIS “Frank”, 1894-1983. Frank Gouin was born in
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and always listed himself as “French-Canadian” when
describing his ethnicity. After the death of his father in Canada, he moved to New
Mexico with his mother’s second husband and family and completed secondary
school in Silver City. As a UNM student he served as Student Body Treasurer and
was in the Glee Club four years. Frank obtained his B.S. in geology in 1916 and
enlisted in the Army the following year. He was commissioned a 2 nd Lieutenant in
the field artillery and was discharged December 6, 1918. Frank Gouin spent most of
his career in Oklahoma as a petroleum geologist and died in Duncan, Oklahoma in
1983.

HUNT, ALBERT SHIRLEY. Albert Hunt received his BA in 1916 and that year began
working as an Assistant to the President of UNM. He was still so employed in 1918
and was boarding at the Sigma Chi house. A May 1919 note in the Albuquerque
Journal indicated he was working for Underwood & Underwood in Jackson,
Mississippi. His last known address in the Sigma Chi records was Gulfport,
Mississippi.

HUNTER, BERTRAM HARRY, 1891-1965. Two Albuquerque Journal newspaper
articles on the UNM Sigma Tau in 1913 mention a B.H Hunter. Bertram Hunter was
born in Deming, New Mexico of English immigrant parents. At the time of his
registration for the draft in June of 1917, Hunter was working for the A.T. & S.F.
Railway in Bakersfield, California. By 1947, he was working as a general contractor
in Fresno, California. He died in Fresno in 1965.

KELLY, CLYDE, 1888-1970. Kelly was born in Illinois and with an intermediate stop
in Iowa, the family moved to Albuquerque after 1900. He began work for the A. T. &
S. F. Railway while attending school. The 1908 UNM Mirage includes a Clyde Kelly
as a 3 rd year member of the UNM prep school and he is mentioned in at least two
newspaper articles on Sigma Tau in 1913, the year he graduated according to UNM.
[On a public document he signed in 1959, Kelly specifically indicated that he had no
middle name/initial!] Clyde Kelly served as a captain in the infantry in WWI and his
photo appears in the 1919 UNM publication honoring the UNM WWI participants.
In 1916 the family had moved on to Fresno, California where Kelly lived for the rest
of his life. He died in Monterey, California in 1970.

LANE, DAVID REDICK, 1887-1983. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Lane received his
degree from UNM in 1911. David began work as a reporter for the Albuquerque
Tribune and 1916 was an editor for the Albuquerque Evening Herald. By June of
1917 when he registered for the draft, he was working for the Associated Press in
Denver. By 1920 he had moved on to Berkeley, California, later switch to the
advertising business. According to the 1935 newspaper article on the founding of
the Beta Xi chapter, he was noted as a short story writer. David Lane died in 1983 in
Alameda County, California.

LAPRAIK, JOHN ALEXANDER, 1892-1970. Born in Connecticut, he moved with his
parents to Albuquerque before entering UNM. At UNM he was on the football,
basketball and baseball teams as well a member of the Choral Club and the Male
Quartet. He played a large part in developing the Sigma Tau Follies, continued by
Sigma Chi after the installation of the chapter in 1916. He served as non-
commissioned officer in the Army during WWI and is mentioned in the UNM book
recognizing UNM participants. His engineering career took him to Arizona and then
California where he died in 1970.

MARSH, HAROLD EUGENE, 1889-1966. Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Harold’s father
was a minister and the family moved to Albuquerque sometime before 1908 where
his father was pastor at the First Congregational Church. Harold is recognized for his
service as a Lt. in an army tank division in WWI in the UNM WWI booklet. He is
mentioned in an April 1913 newspaper article on the Sigma Tau local. Harold in
1920 was living in his father’s home in Orange County, California and was working
in the oil fields. He eventually started an orchard and nursery business. He died in
Orange County in1966.

McCLELLAN, PELHAM LaROCQUE, 1895-1982. Born in Albuquerque, his father
was an accountant and then a Justice of the Peace and municipal judge, Pelham
graduated from Albuquerque High. He spent three years at UNM, and was initiated
into Sigma Chi as one of the Sigma Tau undergraduates. When he registered for the
draft in June of 1917 he was working in Yonkers, New York as a surveyor for a map
company but still considered Albuquerque his home. He was commissioned a
second lieutenant when he enlisted in the Army in New York and is recognized in
the UNM WWI booklet. By 1922 he was working in Westchester County for a family
real estate and insurance business, C.S. McClellan & Co. He died in New York in
1982.

MILLER, HAROLD RUPERT, 1897-1982. After attending UNM, Miller returned to
the place of his birth, Hagerman, New Mexico and worked as a clerk in the family
business. His service during WWI is duly noted in the UNM WWI booklet. In 1920
he was a salesman in the family business in Hagerman but eventually he moved to
Carlsbad where he worked for the Crawford Hotel and then the public schools.
Miller died in Carlsbad in 1982.

MORGAN, SEALS GEORGE, 1897-1977. Born in Jackson, Tennessee, Morgan moved
with his mother and sister to his maternal grandmother’s home in Roswell, New
Mexico sometime before the 1910 census. He entered UNM in the Fall of 1915 and
spent two years at the college before moving back to Roswell. When he registered
for the draft in 1918 he was working for the Mountain States Telephone Company in
Roswell. By 1920 he had gone to work for the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. He spent
some time for the company in Mexico City and also at the main headquarters in
Akron, Ohio. He settled permanently in La Jolla, California in the 1950s. Seals
Morgan died in San Diego in March of 1977.

REDFIELD, JAMES JOHN, 1894-1982. Redfield was born in St. Louis and his family
had moved to New Mexico by 1910. J.J. Redfield is listed as a Sigma Tau in an April
1913 newspaper article in the Albuquerque Journal and a James Redfield is listed
among the Sigma Tau/Sigma Chi actives in the 1916 UNM Mirage. In his June 1917
registration for the draft, James J. Redfield of Crescent, Oklahoma noted his two
years of service in the New Mexico militia/national guard. In the 1920s, Redfield
moved to Pennsylvania where he died in 1982.

RODEY, PEARCE CODINGTON, 1889-1958. Born in Albuquerque Rodey graduated
from prep school in Pennsylvania in 1907 and apparently spent at least one year at
UNM where he was initiated into the Sigma Tau local. He then obtained his B.A. in
1912 and his law degree in 1915, both from Harvard University. Returning to
Albuquerque in October of 1915, he joined his father, Bernard Rodey, in the practice
of law in Albuquerque and became President of the UNM Alumni Association. [It is,
of course, Bernard Rodey, who, as a member of the Territorial Council (“Senate”)
carried the bill creating UNM in 1889, and for whom Rodey Hall at UNM is named.
He served in the Navy during WWI and is duly recognized in the 1919 UNM bulletin
as a UNM contributor to the war effort. As described in the essay of Hugh Carlisle,
Rodey was one of the founders of the Hugh A. Carlisle American Legion Post No. 1 in
Albuquerque and participated with Kenneth Balcomb in the ceremony naming
Carlisle Gym in 1929. In addition to the “private” practice of law, Rodey was one of
the founders of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District and served for eleven
years as its General Counsel. He maintained some interest, perhaps not as much as
his father, in Republican Party politics and was the (unsuccessful) Republican
candidate for U.S. Congress in 1938. Rodey died of cancer in New York City in May of
1958 and was buried in the Fairview Cemetery in Albuquerque.

ROSS, EDMUND, 1887-1965. Ross was born in Albuquerque. His grandfather,
Edmund G. Ross, had served as governor of the New Mexico territory and the family
stayed in New Mexico after his term in the 1880’s. (Previously a U.S. Senator from
Kansas, Senator Ross was one of John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage for his role in
the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson.) According to an article
published in the December 22, 1908 Albuquerque Journal, Ross was one of the
founders of “Tau Delta Tau” local at UNM. Brother Ross was an outstanding student
in engineering, becoming a charter member of Phi Kappa Phi honorary in 1917, and
one of the initial initiates of the UNM chapter of the Sigma Tau engineering honorary
in 1928. Ross had a successful business career in Albuquerque and served on the
City Commission from 1923 until 1931. When he died in Albuquerque in November
of 1965, his photo and obituary were on the front page of the Albuquerque Journal.
Ed Ross is buried in the Fairview Cemetery in Albuquerque.

SEDER, EDWIN STANLEY, 1892-1935. Born in Japan where his father was a
missionary, the family moved to Albuquerque before Seder entered UNM. He was
on the UNM faculty and was a faculty advisor for the Sigma Tau local in 1916. On
faculty descriptions he is shown as receiving his degree at UNM in 1910. He was on
the original list of initiates into the Phi Kappa Phi honorary in 1917. From 1919
through 1926 he was on the faculty at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois
and became well known in the Chicago area as an organist and composer of organ
music. He also taught organ at the Sherwood School of Music in Chicago and at
Wheaton College. Seder died in LaGrange, Illinois in 1935, after a long illness
according to his obituary in the Chicago Tribune.

SEWELL, ROBERT TULLIS, 1891-1963. Born in New Burlington, Ohio in 1891,
Sewell’s father, a physician, moved his family to Albuquerque in the early 1900s
after taking a position with a tuberculosis clinic. Sewell graduated from the UNM
prep school in 1908 and stayed on taking college level courses through 1912.
According to an article published in the December 22, 1908 Albuquerque Journal,
Sewell was one of the founders of “Tau Delta Tau” local at UNM. After college, Sewell
went to work for American Trust & Savings Bank and then the State National Bank
in Albuquerque. In 1916 he joined Brother Rodey as an officer in the UNM Alumni
Association. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in April of 1918 and was in France with the
American Expeditionary Force from June of 1918 through May of 1919. His father
had died before 1915 and when he was discharged from the U.S. Army in June of
1919, he joined his mother and sister in Columbus, Ohio. He continued to live in the
Columbus area working in various banking related jobs, including work as a bank
examiner for the Ohio Banking Department. Sewell died in 1963 in Upper Arlington,
Ohio.

VINCENT, LYLE STAVER, 1898-1962. Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Lyle’s parents
moved from Seattle to Albuquerque after 1910. He spent 1915 through 1917 at
UNM and in addition to Sigma Tau/Sigma Chi, was in the University Band. He is
recognized in the UNM WWI Bulletin honoring participants in the war. Lyle
followed his father in the lumber business and ended up back in Seattle. He moved
to California before 1940 and died in Alameda County, California in 1964.

WALKER, GEORGE T., 1893-1960. Born in Albuquerque, George was the son the
Bernalillo County Clerk, Arthur Walker. Walker graduated from Albuquerque High
where he was Sr. Class President in 1911, at Albuquerque High, making him about
the right age for someone born in 1893. George Walker is mentioned in newspaper
articles about Sigma Tau in 1913 and 1914. He was serving as a Deputy Sheriff in
Bernalillo County, New Mexico in 1916. UNM does include him in its 1919
publication on WWI participants, indicating that he was a 2 nd Lt. in the Army
Engineers Corp. He moved to Oakland, California where he worked for a bank and
later for the State of California. George Walker died in Tucson, Arizona in 1960.

WEBER, CHARLES MICHAEL 1891-1978. C.M. Weber is listed among the Sigma
Tau in an April 1913 newspaper article in the Albuquerque Journal. In the 1915,
1916 and 1935 articles on the founding of Beta XI, his name is misspelled Webber or
Webster. Charles Weber was born in Colorado but his family moved to Albuquerque
where he attended Albuquerque High. He left UNM in 1914 and at the time of his
registration for the draft in June 1917 was working for the A.T. & S.F. Railway in San
Bernardino, California. He eventually started his own business in California and
moved to Las Vegas, Nevada where he died in 1978.

WIGELY, ROBERT GRAHAM, 1893-1969. Born in Chillicothe, Missouri, the family
moved to Albuquerque sometime before 1910. He graduated from Albuquerque
High and entered UNM in 1915. In addition to Sigma Tau/Sigma Chi, he played both
football and basketball at UNM. He joined the U.S. Navy and his service is
acknowledged in the 1919 UNM Bulletin on war participants. He was injured and
spent part of the immediate aftermath of the war in the hospital at Ft. Lyons,
Colorado. He returned to New Mexico and spent most of his career in insurance
related businesses. Wigely died in Albuquerque in 1969 and is buried in the
Fairview Cemetery.

WILSON, DONALD. Donald Wilson, no middle initial, is listed as a Sigma Tau/Sigma
Chi in the 1916 Mirage. Wilson is listed in the newspaper accounts as a founder of
Beta Xi, and he is the only person so listed whose identity is not confirmed by Sigma
Chi Fraternity records.