NHPW Message from the Executive Director
Conversation
At the core of our Fraternity's founding 155 years ago was a commitment to militate against the hazing and abuse of Virginia Military Institute's first-year cadets by certain upper-class cadets willing to misuse their positions of authority in defiance of appropriate military discipline and personal honor.
Enter James Frank Hopkins, Greenfield Quarles, and James McIlvaine Riley.
Enter three men with Vision and the Courage to act to make that vision a reality.
The rest is history. Our history.
Today, as it has been every day since that fateful October night on the VMI Parade Ground, this legacy is our charge to keep: to build men of honor, ethical leaders for a troubled world - by the sheer force of positive education and example, elective discipline, and voluntary dedication to our timeless principles of Love, Honor, and Truth.
In The Legion of Honor, there is no need and no place for physical force or the cowardly crutch of coerced obedience, both of which destroy true brotherhood and threaten the well-being of others and the future of our resolve.
Our collective commitment to and ability to realize this singular purpose - more than anything else we do - will determine whether or not The Legion of Honor continues to grow and thrive.
We will not be perfect in our endeavors. As our Ritual states, "institutions were made for men, and not men for institutions." It is in the creation of our Fraternity and the earnest pursuit of its aspirational purpose that the real value of Sigma Nu Fraternity is found. "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another" (Proverbs 27:17).
Eternal vigilance against the scourge of hazing is the responsibility of each Knight. May our pursuit continue to be relentless.
Fraternally Yours,
Brad Beacham (Texas Christian)
Executive Director