As Supreme Prior when the Fraternity turned 60 years of age, I found myself leading a prosperous, growing Fraternity with 74 Chapters and 9 Colonies. We were innovating, creating, and adjusting to keep the Fraternity in tune with the times without forgetting our past.

We brought 15 Regional Governors into the Official Family; we completed the move from New York City to Indianapolis in order to better serve our members; our voluntary alumni dues became a meaningful portion of our operating income; other national fraternities sought to merge with us but we rejected these advances in favor of our own internal expansion policy of opening new chapters; we instituted an Alumni Council and Committee system in order to involve our older leaders and additional alumni; and we established a meaningful grant for a graduate student to do his doctoral paper on "The Role of the Fraternity in the Next Two Decades."

At the 60th Anniversary of the Fraternity, I said in a "state of the union" message published in the Octagonian: "I am sure that, as we will look back, on the occasion of our 100th Anniversary 40 years hence, there will be a Sigma Alpha Mu; we will still be helping to serve the youth of America; and this organization will be serving the same good, positive functions it has had for the past 60 years."

Howard B. Miller
Sigma Chi
May 12, 2008