Fraternity Life is Lifelong Bonds

Name: Donn T. Wonnell
Class of: 1969
Hometown: Williamsburg, VA and Indianapolis, IN
Major: History
Occupation: Corporate Attorney

Why did you join a fraternity?

Fraternities offered opportunities of many kinds. Greek organizations had and have a good reputation for programs for community service, help with classes, exposure to social activities (black-tie formals as well as informal gatherings), and always a place to be with friends. That was the core opportunity: friendship. The idea of accepting others who were equally willing to accept you, of supporting them as they supported you, was novel then and hard to come by since. I joined because those people were - and still are - great people.   

How have your connections with friends from the Greek community changed since you graduated from William & Mary?

They haven't much, which is pretty remarkable in an age where everything changes, mostly by design. Homecoming over the decades has brought a steady turnout of people in our class years (roughly '65 to '69). This is not an "intimations of mortality" matter where some things come to seem important only because other things recede. Nor is it a focus on the past, because we continue to share the changes in our lives with each other, year to year, up to the present.  Our fraternity connections have always been important. This isn't unique to our classes. Other Pi Lambda Phi brothers (the new kids from the 80s and 90s) also celebrate their friendships down the years. They don't do it quite as well as we do, but then we've had more practice.

How did being a member of a Greek organization during college provide you with an opportunity to establish friendships that have lasted past graduation?

Greek life is about learning to live with people, because you will see a lot of them during your life. Some you get to choose; others you're stuck with. No matter what statisticians say about affinity groups, shared economic characteristics, and cultural conditioning, everyone is different. Accommodating those differences in others and being accommodated in return is key to building long-term friendships, whenever and wherever such relationships matter - at the College, then later with a family, in a neighborhood, or on the job. The fraternity was the first critical, positive introduction to that learning process.

What role did fraternity membership play in your undergraduate experience?

It was at the core of my experience because fraternity membership enhanced - rather than displaced - all the other experiences of my undergraduate days. The fraternity provided a foundation which gave the other parts of College life - people, events, discoveries - more meaning and value. It was hard to see at the outset back in 1965, but the motto of Pi Lambda Phi has proved true ever since: Not four years, but a lifetime.