Category Archives: Congrats

2018 RG Swedo ’96 Golf Outing Recap

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Congrats to Billy Hanson ’16, Sal Fratto ’16, Alex Karl ’15, and Jimmy Kowalczyk ’16 – for finishing 3rd at the 17th RG Swedo ’96 Golf Outing last weekend. With the lowest score of the 12 ATO teams, they are the winners of the 2018 Heldman ’98 Trophy. Thanks to Matt Massucci ’96 for coordinating this great event which raised just under $7k for scholarships – putting the total raised at nearly $260k since it started 17 years ago!

There were over 30 ATO Alumni that played, ranging from 1981s to 2012s.
John Bucklar, Matt Massucci, John Barrientes, Steve Currey, John Vlahavas, Jeff Chou, Mark Liyeos, Steve Spy, Nick Spy, Jon Spy, Pat Martin, Andrew McIntyre, Tim Cochran, Kevin Marston, Chris Bonds, Curt Richardson, Jim Lyznicki, Ed Traines, Billy Hanson, Sal Fratto, Alex Karl, Jimmy Kowalczyk, Jason Swedo, Jason Aguiar, Ted Dimiropolous, Joe Rossi,  Jeremy Aguiar, Jim Meister, Jon Upleger, Kevin Baum, Matt Starman, Barry Schmidt, Chris Ernst, Ryan Yagoda, and Francis Hollweck.

Jack Klues ’77 inducted into Illinois Fraternity/Sorority Hall of Fame

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Congrats to Jack Klues ’77 on being inducted into the Illinois Fraternity and Sorority Alumni Hall of Fame on this past Saturday, April 21! Jim Dobrovolny ’71 presented a nice donation in Jack’s name on our behalf to the Adlon Dohme Jorgensen Greek Life Endowment Fund. Nice mention in the DI too – https://dailyillini.com/news/2018/04/21/five-illinois-alumni-inducted-into-fraternity-and-sorority-hall-of-fame/

John Stacey ’68 inducts John Wright ’68 into the Wheaton HS Hall of Fame

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Last night John Stacey ’68 had the honor of inducting John Wright ’68 into the Wheaton High Schools Alumni Hall of Fame at a ceremony and dinner in Wheaton. John was a grade school, high school and college classmate of John’s… and a Gamma Zeta pledge brother. Very cool! Other Gamma Zeta and Wheaton high schools alumni in attendance were Mike Maher and Dane Luhrsen both ’77s.

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Congrats John Wright ’69 – Selected for Wheaton High Schools Hall of Fame

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john-wrightbiophotoThe Wheaton Community High Schools Alumni Club just announced their 2015 Hall of Fame inductees which include John Wright (Gamma Zeta ’69).

John was a three sport athlete who received All-State accolades in football and track and field. He was the state champ and record holder in the 180 low hurdles in 1964. John excelled in football and track at the University of Illinois garnering six letters and reaping both All- American and Academic All-American honors. Upon graduation, John was the all time U of I and Big Ten historical leading receiver and ranked 5th in NCAA history. Following college, John was drafted at the top of the second round in the NFL by the Atlanta Falcons. Subsequently he was traded to the Detroit Lions where he played for six years. As CEO of the Wright Financial Group, he grew his office from $750 million to over $9 billion of insurance. He was voted the top speaker at the NFL National Rookie Symposium six times. He’ll be formally inducted at the Wheaton High Schools Alumni Association annual dinner and golf outing on September 10 in Wheaton. Congrats John!!

RG Swedo Outing ups scholarship total to $250K. John Bucklar ’96 team wins Heldman Trophy!

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11863238_400999946772543_8253878986969153616_nWe just wrapped up the 14th Annual R Gregory Swedo ’96  Foundation Golf Outing.  We had over 110 golfers + a great group of volunteers.  Based on our bar tab – it looks like everyone had a great time….
In total – we raised over $10k, putting our 14 year total ​at​ $250k.  We awarded our 11th scholarship this year!​
​We added a new twist – awarding the Matt Heldman Trophy – to the highest finishing ATO team.  In total, we had 25 ATOs play, and 10 of the 27 4somes were in the hunt for the trophy – including 4 undergrads (special thanks to Bill Barry ’77 for sponsoring the undergrad team).
Congrats to John Bucklar for winning this year!  The​re​ was a 3 way tie at -15, which included​ John Bucklar 96, Brian Grady, Andy Clark, and Chip Aubry​.  They lost in the 150 yard shoot-out by about 2 feet, and finished 2nd overall.​  ​John also did a phenomenal job putting together a video with pictures and music full of mid 90s classics.​  Here’s a link –

For anyone that knew Greg, it is a must watch.​

Mark your calendar – next year’s event is tentatively scheduled for 8/27.  We definitely need another 10-20 ATOs next year.
Thanks again to our volunteers & sponsors:
– Pat & Jenny Kernan
– Amanda Massucci & Mike Wokosin
– Brian Welch – State Farm
– Massucci Blomquist Anderson and Dunn
– Bevery & Doug McMillen-Reid Family
– John McMillen & Laurie Hutchings & Family
– Hirewell
– Sayers
– William A Randolph
– CMC Advisory
– Chicago Beverage System
– Commonwealth Bar
– Schultz
– Lakeshore Beverage
– Sierra Nevada
– Careerbuilder
– Reliable Computer
Here’s a link to a brochure with additional info about the event – RGS Brochure Final 2015
See you next year!

Matt Massucci ’96

ATO National Congress 2015 – Gamma Zetas take home awards!!

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IMG_0991Last night, Saturday, August 8 Gamma Zetas attended the closing banquet of the 2015 ATO National Congress in Indianapolis.  We’re very proud to announce that our chapter was awarded True Merit Honorable Mention status, our first True Merit mention of any kind since 2007.   Earlier in the week, Gamma Zeta received Excellence Awards in Campus Involvement & Leadership Development, Communications, Recruitment and Scholarship. Outgoing Worthy Master, Jimmy Kowalczyk ’16 won the National Storm Strap Award and our Board of Trustees were recognized with the Upper Alpha Award. This is a huge step forward for our chapter and recognizes an incredible amount of work and an outstanding year for the chapter.  We’ll share more about what went into these awards in upcoming newsletters but wanted to let everyone know about this recognition right away.  Congrats and great work to all!!

Gamma Zetas attending included Board of Trustees members John Aymond ’80 and his wife Ginger, Dane Luhrsen ’77 and Dave Krug ’95 and his wife Simona, Board of Trustees Chairman Jack Klues ’77 and his wife Beth, undergraduates Mitchell Talbot ’17 (current Worthy Master) and Jimmy Kowalczyk ’16 (outgoing Worthy Master) and Mark Wilhelmi ’79 and his wife Marcie.