Vol 86, No. 2 Fall 2012 - Monmouth College

Professor Sienkewicz steps down as
Executive Secretary of ΗΣΦ
Dear Members of Eta Sigma Phi:
During my nine years as Executive Secretary
of Eta Sigma Phi, I have had the
pleasure of working with many outstanding
undergraduate Classics students and with
many dedicated chapter advisors. I have
never ceased to be amazed by the willingness
of so many to serve this important
organization, one which holds the future of
Classical studies in its hands. I am pleased
that, during my tenure as Executive Secretary,
with the help and encouragement
of the Board of Trustees and many others,
Eta Sigma Phi has succeeded in becoming
a much more visible presence in the
Classical community. It is now a member
of the National Committee for Latin and
Greek, the Classical Association of the
Middle West and South (CAMWS), and
the American Philological Association. Eta
Sigma Phi now not only sponsors undergraduate
panels at CAMWS Southern
Section but also at the American Philological
Association. The organization regularly
has informational tables at the joint annual
meeting of the American Philological
Association and the Archaeological
Institute of America, as well as CAMWS,
the Classical Association of the Atlantic
States (CAAS) and the American Classical
League.
I am particularly pleased that, as a
result of a generous bequest by Lawrence
Crowson, late member of Pi at Birmingham
Southern University, Eta Sigma Phi
now has a solid endowment which has
enabled the organization to fund a $2000
Summer Fieldwork Scholarship in Classical
Archaeology, named after H.R. Butts,
Mr. Crowson’s beloved Greek professor at
Birmingham Southern and one of my predecessors
as Executive Secretary. With this
endowment the amount of the Translation
Prizes has also been significantly increased.
One of my most pleasant experiences as
Secretary Treasurer was rediscovering the
“Song for Eta Sigma Phi” in an old issue
of NUNTIUS and reintroducing it to the
membership with the addition of translations
in Latin and Greek.
So, as Eta Sigma Phi looks forward to
celebrating its centennial year in 2014, I
confidently pass the torch of Executive
Secretary to the capable hands of Dr.
David Sick of Rhodes College. As I do,
I would like to thank for their help and
ΗΣΦ welcomes a New
Executive Secretary
support all the national officers with whom
I worked so closely as well as my colleagues
on the Board of Trustees, especially Dr.
Martha Davis and Sr. Thérèse Marie
Daugherty, as well as Dr. Daniel Levine,
Dr. Joseph Garnjobst, Dr. Wayne Tucker,
and Dr. Brent Froberg.
I look forward to seeing many of you in
Wake Forest in 2013, and, especially, at our
centennial meeting in Chicago in 2014.
Let the spirit of earnest endeavor, good
will, and friendship pervade the body of
Eta Sigma Phi and bind us all together.
Si vales, valeo.
Thomas J. Sienkewicz
Capron Professor of Classics
Gamma Omicron at Monmouth College
Our New E-S brings proof of membership
Our society has come to greater prominence
over the past decade in large part
due to the efforts of Tom Sienkewicz, the
fifteenth Executive Secretary of ΗΣΦ.
Our students are now regular participants
in the annual meetings of the APA,
CAMWS, and the ACL. We now offer a
scholarship for summer work on archaeological
excavations. Tom’s work built on
that of the fourteen men and women who
held the position before him, and I have no
grand objective of policy in assuming the
role after him. My hope is simply to solidify
the gains made by my predecessors and to
establish procedures at the national office
that make the job easily transferable to
future Executive Secretaries.
It was twenty-five years ago in April that
I became a member of the Alpha Upsilon
chapter of Eta Sigma Phi at the College
of Wooster. The initiation was held in
Professor Vivian Holliday’s home on Forest
Ave. in Wooster, OH. We celebrated after
the ceremony with banana pudding made
by Dr. Holliday herself, a native of South
Carolina. I had never tasted banana pudding
before; I now encounter it regularly as
a resident of Memphis, TN. As a junior in
college I also had no idea that the evening
would begin for me a life-long relationship
with the society. I am glad now to give back
to an association that played a significant
part in my own undergraduate education.
— David Sick
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