We recently reached out to our brothers to see what they have been up to since their time at Penn State, and they had a lot to say! Thanks to Jack Sillaman '74 for letting us in on your life! Here is what he had to say below.

Who do you still hang out with from Phi Sigma Kappa?

I don't hang out with anyone except for the reunion every few years at PSU. But I do keep in DAILY touch with Steu Brown, Dan Stearns, Steve Yorks, Bob Kochman and Bob Rohrbach. And that used to include the sadly departed Billy May and Curt Steel, as well as Greg Puhalla.  I also keep in touch with my old roommate Rick Stratford and Denny ( Too Many) Hullman. And I'd like to talk more to Dennis Wist and John Fruit who both live about an hour from me. Almost FIFTY years and we still talk about the good times at the Krapper Mansion ! I've been to Philly a few years back to visit with Rick and Steu. I also plan on visiting with Bill Glassmeyer and Bob Heidlebaugh in York before too long. I've been a retired Architect for 2 years now and LOVE it.

Tell us about your family—are you married?

I have 2 sons, a daughter and 3 grandkids. My 45 yr old son Justin is a PSU grad, owns a house in Austin and has an apartment in Manhattan Beach, CA. He splits time between both places with his fiance and he's a sales rep for www.marcofinearts.com . My 41 yr old daughter Erica lives in York, Pa and married a minister. She is co-owner of an ambulance billing business after teaching elementary ed for 10 years in Lampeter Stroudsburg. She has 3 great kids ages 4,7 and 10 and we try to visit them every month or two. My 40 yr old son Brandon is living at home & works for a company making medical devices. He loves traveling & living at home lets him do that.

I still live in Latrobe with my wife Kathy of 47 years. But in my mind I live in the 70's. Phi Sig gave me some of the best times EVER along with some of the best friends one could ask for. The characters I lived with and the character of the guys I met is truly astounding. I'm blown away by the how many extremely successful individuals came out of Phi Sig and that I've been privileged to have known and lived with. The parties and fun with all of those crazy, funny brothers were the BEST !  We relive those times at every reunion and I relive them every time I look at multitude of photos I took in my 5 years at PSU: 1 in North Halls, 3 in Phi Sig and 1 in an apartment.

Are you advancing your education or working in your dream career?

Living with all of those unique personalities certainly helped me deal with employers, fellow employees and clients in my 45 yr architecture career. Probably the thing that helped me most was developing and maintaining a sense of humor in even the most stressful situations. I tried to not take myself too seriously and I think many clients appreciated not dealing with an arrogant architect. I worked for small firms, medium sized firms and for a large firm with my last 17 years spent commuting 1 1/2 hr each way to Pittsburgh. So you can see why I enjoy retirement so much. I don't golf, hunt, fish or even play tennis anymore. But I do have a Honda Shadow 1100 motorcycle I enjoy riding. I've been kept busy up-grading our house, doing maintenance and traveling to see my kids and grandkids.

I try to get up to PSU once a year and walk that beautiful campus: truly Happy Valley. I've only been back to the house during the reunions but I really should stop in to check it and the brothers out. Enjoy every minute at Phi Sig and PSU. Blink and those days will be gone. But the memories and the friendships will last the rest of your life. It's funny: 3 of my Phi Sig brothers will be living in Austin and 3 of us will have kids living in Austin ! So you never know where those friends and times at Phi Sig will lead you. 'Party on dudes ! '

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