The current and retired teachers of the Nu Alpha Gamma Chapter celebrated the 65th anniversary of their chapter’s founding Saturday with some classroom drama at the one-room Alton School at Forest Park Museum in Perry before repairing to the Hotel Pattee for a luncheon.
Nu Alpha Gamma is a chapter of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society, which promotes professional and personal growth of women educators and excellence in education. The society was founded in 1929 in Austin, Texas. Upsilon State Iowa was founded in 1936.
Secretary Sue Leslie wrote and directed a one-act play for the occasion, “The Golden Brick Road to Nu Alpha Gamma’s Beginnings,” which traced the travails in bringing to light the chapter, which had its first meeting Nov. 4, 1956. The play was interwoven with themes from “The Wizard of Oz,” including a Good Witch, a Munchkin-like chorus and much heart, brain and courage.
Leslie also penned a playlet for the chapter’s 50th anniversary celebration, held Nov. 4, 2006, at the Washington Township School.
Longtime Perry school teacher Hazel Moody was the moving spirit in organizing the Perry chapter — originally called the Alpha Gamma Chapter but more recently rechristened the Nu Alpha Gamma Chapter in order to satisfy certain Internal Revenue Service peculiarities. The prologue to Leslie’s play captured the spirit of the age in which Moody organized the chapter:
“In 1954 President Dwight Eisenhower put forth a plan for an interstate system and pledged support to South Viet Nam. Elvis Presley recorded his debut single, ‘That’s All Right, Mama.” The words ‘under God’ were added to the Pledge of Allegiance, and the first mass inoculation against polio with the Jonas Salk vaccine occurred. RCA manufactured the first color TV set (12.5″ screen for $1,000), and everyone was eagerly anticipating the TV broadcast of ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ In Des Moines WHO TV channel 13 began broadcasting. Upsilon State was 20 years old. Delta Kappa Gamma was only 27 years old, and in Perry, Iowa, Hazel Moody has returned from Mason City to her home town to teach sixth grade.”
The 15 founding members were Cornelia Bulkley, Ruth Brady, Virginia Cunningham, Blanche Dickerson, Josephine Fagen, Irene Hartman, Louise Jones, Marian Krohnke, Wilma McManus, Hazel Moody, Greta Sayles, Beulah Shepard, Melva Shiery, Lillian Sterret and Margaret Webster.
The original chapter officers were:
- President Hazel Moody
- First Vice President Louise Jones
- Second Vice President Blanche Dickerson
- Corresponding Secretary Cornelia Bulkley
- Treasurer Josephine Fagen
- Parliamentarian Lillian Sterret
Enacting and beholding Saturday’s Nu Alpha Gamma one-act play were Maureen Becker, Marilyn Bode, Barb Burkett, Nancy Burrow, Cathy Clark, Kathy Fox, Carol Hill, Deb Irving, Marlene Johnson, Sue Leslie, Marilyn Lynch, Darlene Pitsenbarger, Roxy Schwartz and Sharon Ulrich.
Current chapter officers are:
- President Sharon Ulrich
- First Vice President Deb Irving
- Second Vice President Marlene Johnson
- Recording Secretary Marilyn Bode
- Corresponding Secretary Sue Leslie
- Treasurer Maureen Becker
- Parliamentarian Darlene Pitsenbarger
Also joining in the wizardry of Saturday’s Alton School skit were representatives of the state organization, Delta Kappa Gamma State President Kristen Merkle and First Vice President Liz Heck Poock, the daughter of longtime Nu Alpha Gamma member Florence Heck, who joined her fellow teachers at the hotel luncheon.
At the lunch meeting at the Hotel Pattee, the original Nu Alpha Gamma charter was displayed alongside a composite picture of the original 15 founders. The minutes of the chapter’s first meeting in 1957 were read aloud, and Merkle delivered a brief address on behalf of Delta Kappa Gamma Iowa, congratulating the local chapter .
