We are going to try to feture some Alpha Phi alumni and their sucsess stories
Congratulations to Alumni Mike #243 and his wife Betty Brink
for being honored as the 2017 Honored Agriculturists of the year
for pdf version click here
Spring 2016 Alumni Spotlight
Richard Kolousek
The Richard Kolousek an alumni of the Alpha Phi chapter, family was featured in the May/June edition of the South Dakota Union Farmer publication.
SDSU ALUMNUS ELECTED TO LEAD NATIONAL AGRICULTURE FRATERNITY
Alpha Phi’s own Cal Willemssen recently took over the reigns and was elected to serve as the national Grand President for Alpha Gamma Rho. Willemssen is in the first 100 members of Alpha Phi and was initiated in 1966. The Clear Lake, SD farm boy recently retired as the executive vice president of The First National Bank in Sioux Falls after spending 30 years at the bank. Those of us who were able to attend Pink Rose in Sioux Falls were able to hear inspiring words from Brother Willemssen and all of us are extremely proud of his ability to give back to our Fraternity.
Looking back on his successful professional career, Cal encourages fellow brothers of Alpha Gamma Rho to seize each opportunity that presents itself and heed the advice of your “inner circle” of friends and mentors. Brother Willemssen has been an active participant in previous chapter planning sessions with the Alpha Phi Chapter and cites those leadership development experiences as crucial to truly “building better men”.
Heritage of our exemplary fraternity is important to Willemssen and during his tenure as Grand President he will make it a priority that our current and future brothers of Alpha Gamma Rho are sharing and living the history of AGR.
Utilizing our professional network to the fullest extent proved to be extremely beneficial to Brother Willemssen. Starting his career after graduating from South Dakota’s Land Grant University working in Extension and also with the Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce he has been able to tell the full story about the business and economic importance of production agriculture to our urban friends. While building his network and working for The First National Bank of Sioux Falls Willemssen served on the Chamber Agriculture committee and often serving in leadership roles with the Chamber.
The South Dakota State University Foundation Board of Trustees is fortunate to have Cal’s talent and expertise and all of us as fellow brothers of Alpha Gamma Rho are proud to have one of our own on this important board.
With well over 1000 alumni of Alpha Phi Brother Willemssen encourages us to build each other up especially within our network of brothers to build the chapter up to support the active members and truly activate our alumni membership.
Fraternally submitted,
Jason Frerichs
Willemssen Reception
A reception was held Saturday September 12th, to honor our National Grand President and Alpha Phi alumnus, Cal Willemssen and his wife Lynne, from 12:00 to 2:00pm at the chapter house. A pulled pork dinner was served. We had a good turn out and all the alumni that came had a great time getting to see old friends. Brad Garrison the Director of Development from the national office was able to join us in this celebration.
