{"id":24,"date":"2012-01-31T23:40:34","date_gmt":"2012-01-31T23:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thetachapterbtp.org\/content\/?p=24"},"modified":"2013-03-05T22:59:39","modified_gmt":"2013-03-05T22:59:39","slug":"brad-chelton-98-bond-1619","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetachapterbtp.org\/content\/brad-chelton-98-bond-1619\/","title":{"rendered":"Brad Chelton, \u201998, Bond #1619"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Early Years<\/strong>
\nBrad was born July 10, 1976 in Ashland, KY. His family lived in Franklin Furnace, OH (near Portsmouth), and the nearest hospital was across the river in KY. Periodic family relocations coincided with his father\u2019s career as a Lutheran minister, from Franklin Furnace, OH to Sidney, OH to Charlottesville, VA to Columbus, OH, which Brad called home since 1988. Along the way his younger siblings, Jessica and Andrew, were born. His mother was a teacher for many of these years, taking time off on occasion to raise her children (she recently retired in June 2011).<\/p>\n

Childhood fun included sports, especially baseball. The Chelton\u2019s backyard in Sidney, OH was the neighborhood baseball field, and there were large dirt patches in his yard for all of the bases and pitcher\u2019s mound, which drove his mother crazy. He had a very rewarding high school experience at St. Charles Preparatory School in Columbus. After graduation in 1994 he headed 20 miles north to begin his college years at Ohio Wesleyan.<\/p>\n

Ohio Wesleyan<\/strong>
\nBrad\u2019s decision to come to OWU was based on a few things; including OWU\u2019s good academic reputation, \u201csmall school\u201d fit, and an opportunity to play collegiate baseball His father grew up in Baltimore, MD, so all of Brad\u2019s life he made family trips there to visit family and friends. As Brad said, \u201cit was pretty cool that my freshman year my roommate was Mike Dowgiewicz \u201998, who also grew up in Baltimore. Our first night at OWU included a Donato\u2019s pizza and a 12-pack of Budweiser.\u201d Freshman year curriculum was indicative of a liberal arts school and he took classes in astronomy, philosophy and geology. His most interesting class was a sports psychology class which included an analysis of quarterback performance in the Super Bowl which \u201cmight have been my only A my freshman year\u201d, reported Brad. His sophomore year saw him taking his first accounting class and decided that should be his major. Having focused curriculum for his last 3 years of college, Brad\u2019s grades improved and he graduated in 1998 with an accounting major and management minor. He told Aldo Adachi \u201999 many times while recruiting him to pledge Beta, that he could tell his parents Brad was proof that grades can improve when living in a fraternity house! <\/p>\n

As an accounting major, nearly all of his classes were taught by either Professor Cliff Cook or JoAnn Harvey. Brad noted that they were both very helpful in his academic achievements as well as in his post-college successes.<\/p>\n

Brad noted that \u201cit was fun playing baseball with some of my Beta brothers (Dowgiewicz, Ramsy Mahjoub \u201998, Matt Jakubowski \u201999 and Wes Hall \u201999, Scott Yanney), including a Spring Break trip to Fort Myers, FL my freshman year. However, I decided to retire after our fall semester of our sophomore year, and this decision helped my academics\u2026and my social calendar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pledging Beta<\/strong>
\nAfter arriving on campus his freshman year, it didn\u2019t take long for a first Beta interaction. Paul Corto \u201997 was Rush Chairman and went to high school with Mike Dowgiewicz, Brad\u2019s freshman year roommate. Brad noted, \u201cPaul was instrumental in recruiting our pledge class and made sure we were at the Beta house frequently for meals, parties, etc. For our Thomson Hall crew (Ramsy Mahjoub \u201998, Dowgiewicz and me), the Beta house was literally steps away which made recruitment of us that much easier.\u201d <\/p>\n

Brad has great memories of his time as a Beta, and won\u2019t be able to do them all justice in this article. \u201cLooking back, one of my favorite things about our house was the diversity of interests in the house \u2013 the sports fanatics, the \u201cDeads Heads\u201d, and the philosophers to name a few (sometimes those interests were divided 2nd Floor vs. 3rd Floor).\u201d <\/p>\n

Brad notes, \u201cI tried to be an active member of Theta Chapter in my years at OWU. I think I may have had the title as Co-Rush Chairman my sophomore year, but make no mistake, Ramsy Mahjoub led that charge and was very good at it. I was proud to serve as Vice President of the house during one of Dowgiewicz\u2019s years as president, and I also served as Alumni Chairman, working with alumni such as Tom Tatham on publishing the Theta Data. As for the memories\u2026\u201d <\/p>\n