mm. filpiii'-^' SnilNG. 19f�ft .�>.V.-:i' ��* .'*�' '?.' ^J ?�',,' ' % M THE DIAMOND OF PSI UPSILON OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF PSI UPSILON FRATERNITY Volume LII SPRING, 1966 Number 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS DeWitt Wallace, Epsilon '14�Founded, Edits and PubHshes World's Most Popular Magazine. Creative Utilization of Education by Nelson A. Rockefeller, Zeta '30 Highlights of Executive Council Meetings The Invisible Thread: A University's Reputation How to Succeed as a University President Without ReaUy Trying. by Herman B Wells, Chancellor of Indiana University 12 Theodore Francis Green, Sigma '87 13 Gilbert H. Grosvenor, Gamma '97 14 The Grandfather and the Fraternity by William E. Fielder, Omicron '14 15 The Chapter Reports 39 Alumni News and Notes Editor Emeritus PETER A. GaBAUER, Pi '25 Co-Editors . HUBERT C. CROWLEY, Gamma '59, EARL J. FRETZ, Tau '64 Associate Editor GEORGE T. SEWALL, Kappa '32 Advisory Editor JOHN F. BUSH, JR., Upsilon '22 Executive and Editorial Offices: Room 417, 4 W. 43rd St., New York, New York 10036. Telephone: 212-524-1664. Publication Office: 1201-05 Bluff Street, Fulton, Missouri 65251. Life subscription, $20; by subscription, SI.00 per year; single copies, 50 cents. Published in Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer by the Psi Upsilon Fratemity. Application for transfer of second-class postage rates pending at Fulton. Missouri. DeWitt Wallace, Epsilon 14, Founded, Edits and Publishes World's Most Popular Magazine It is a favorite theme of Brother DeWitt WaUace that The result of this wish to help farmers help them faith and individual man, supported by determination, can selves was "Getting the Most Out of Farming," a 124- make an imprint on society as clearly as a skier leaves his page booklet which listed titles of the free pamphlets to tracks on driven snow. gether with brief summaries of their contents. Brother The magazine he founded in 1922 stands as a great Wallace sold 100,000 copies of the booklet, largely to testament to the efficacy of this belief. Launched amid banks for distribution to their farmer customers. dire prophecies of failure by leading publishers with In the months that followed he honed his condensing his whom he discussed idea. The Reader's Digest has be techniques, working next on a digest of ideas from market come the world's most successful and influential magazine. ing trade journals that he hoped to sell to department The man who began this unique publishing enterprise stores. While working on this booklet, he was struck by was bom on November 12, 1889 in St. Paul, Minnesota. the idea that condensation could work as well with articles His father was Dr. James Wallace, who was successively of general interest as with those of specific application. professor, dean and president of Macalester College, a lib America's entry in World War I in 1917 (temporarily) eral arts institution in St. Paul, Minnesota. ended DeWitt Wallace's growing preoccupation, but he Brother Wallace entered Macalester College in 1907. was soon to pick it up again. Seriously wounded in the His interest in scholastic matters, never unduly high, had Meuse-Argonne offensive in 1918, he spent his four waned sufficiently by the end of his sophomore year to months' convalescence reading and condensing general-in influence him to take a summer job in a bank in the state terest magazine articles. of Colorado headed by his uncle, Robert Wallace. He Discharged in 1919, he continued his work in the Min stayed a full year, during which he began to take more neapolis Public Library. In 1920 he felt enough confidence seriously a pastime that had entertained him at Macales in what he was doing to issue a sample copy of what he ter: noting and filing highlights from magazine articles called The Reader's Digest. It contained the best of his that he considered of more than just passing interest and condensations. Wallace circulated it to publishers, and value. offered his services as editor to anyone who would support In 1910 DeWitt Wallace enrolled at the University of his idea and hire him to implement it. California at Berkeley where he was initiated into Psi Up The lack of interest was universal. Even such a bril silon. In 1912 he returned to St. Paul and took a job writ instinctive as William Hearst ing sales promotion letters for the Book Department of liantly publisher Randolph prophesied a small circulation for such a magazine. the Webb Publishing Company. After all, how could a publication without fiction, adver While he was with Webb, his magazine articles gathered tising or artwork and with only serious articles possibly momentum and took on a somewhat different direction. attract more than few readers? He noted that the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Yet he did have at least one staunch She various state agriculture departments had published liun- supporter. was Lila Bell the sister of a Macalester dreds of pamphlets on a wide variety of subjects. He Acheson, College whom Wallace had met on a Christmas vacation thought that these would be of great use to farmers, if classmate at the Achesons' home. they could be made aware of their existence. spent Tacoma, Washington Brother DeWitt Wallace, Epsilon '14, and his wife, Lila, are co-founders and co-chairmen of THE READER'S DI GEST, the world's most popular mag azine. Besides literary activity, the Wallace's have distinguished them selves by giving substantial support to many diversified projects ranging from Macalester College to the res toration of the Villa Boscobel. Mrs. Wallace's gift of $1 million accounted for almost all of the money needed for the new YWCA Center in White Plains, New York. Brother Wallace is also a member of the President's Diamond Club. Bradford Bachrach Fabian Bachrach 2 THE DIAMOND OF PSI UPSILON are invited to discuss articles and ideas When the publishers to whom he had shown his Read Writers who at a restored old farm er's Digest failed to respond, Wallace took a job in the are entertained beautifully 180-year lunch in can be International Publicity Department of the Westinghouse house. An invitation to have Chappaqua for writer and reader alike. Electric Company in Pittsburgh. the beginning of a bonanza of events recounted in the 1965 At this time an associate, a mail-order specialist, con A series by John Reddy illustrated this effec vinced him that The Reader's Digest could (successfully) edition of Writer's Yearbook point be sold by mail. One day Brother Wallace's boss said, "As tively. A few a free lance writer named Cornelius I understand you are planning to start a magazine, and as years ago had lunch with a of editors at The Reader's you were the last one hired, you will have to leave May Ryan group to discuss new article After 31." Others in the department were dismissed soon after Digest possibilities. hashing because of the depression. over a number of ideas that elicited little enthusiasm from With $5,000 of (mostly borrowed) capital. Brother the assembly. Digest Executive Editor Hobart Lewis asked like to write if he could write Wallace spent the next four months in Pittsburgh mail Ryan what he would any he wanted to. ing letters offering a year's subscription to the yet-to-be thing that he had wanted to write born magazine. Then on October 15, 1921, Wallace and Ryan replied always because he felt that the first 24 Lila Acheson were married at Pleasantville, New York. something about D-Day Soon after returning from the honeymoon. The Reader's hours of the invasion were the most fateful in recent his a little all warmed to the Digest was launched with an initial circulation of about tory. After discussion, subject 1,500 copies. and when the lunch ended he had an assignment to do a for The Today, 45 years later, the magazine is published in 14 D-Day piece Digest. languages and 30 separate editions. Over 25 million copies When Ryan submitted the results of his first research of The were enthusiastic. are bought each month. effort, the editors Digest They decided the subject would make a good book. Simon Digest Headquarters and Schuster and The Digest gave Ryan an advance which enabled him to write the book; The Digest also assigned The Digest headquarters is a story in itself. Formerly its research departments in the United States and Europe the central office operations of The Digest were concur to assist Ryan. rently conducted from 14 different locations in the town The Longest Day, Ryan's book, was condensed in two of Pleasantville. Most of the aforementioned operations are issues of The Digest. The Simon and Schuster hard-cover now conducted from one location in Chappaqua, but the edition sold over 80,000 copies and was on the non-fiction frantic atmosphere usually associated with the publishing best seller list for five months. The paperback edition sold business is strangely absent. The informality is astounding. almost 1 and %, million copies. The motion picture of the People calling DeWitt Wallace are startled to have him same name produced by Darryl Zanuck with a screen play answer his own phone. There are no regular meetings or by Ryan, grossed more money than any black and white fixed editorial routines. This operation prompted writer picture in history. James Wood to say, "editorial communication (at Digest is osmosis and headquarters) by contagion." (Continued on page 11) t-Sar^' The headquarters of THE READER'S DIGEST in Chappaqua, New Yorlt. lacks the (rantic atmosphere usually associated with the magazine publishing business. Creative Utilization of Education The following are excerpts from devotion to excellence�in faculty, remarks by Governor Nelson A.