Items of Interest 
2012 Founders' Day
Pictured above: 10 and 50 year members of Theta Chapter
Brothers past and present assembled on Saturday, March 3, 2012, to celebrate the 96th Founders’ Day of Theta Chapter. The day began at the Chapter House with registration and a continental breakfast. At 10:30 a.m. the brothers moved to the Chapter Room for the annual business meeting. There was much to celebrate as the accomplishments of the past year were presented to the alumni in attendance.
Pictured above: 10 year members of Theta Chapter
Thanks to the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, two vans were provided to transport those wanting a ride to Elm Street Ballroom for a great luncheon. Afterward, Chapter awards were presented. Awards were followed by recognition of members present for the 10 year and 50 years classes.
The undergraduates would like to thank all alumni and guest who traveled from Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas and throughout Missouri to be with us this year. We appreciate your continued support to Theta Chapter.
The silent auction raised over $1200, which will be used to cover undergraduate expenses at the Alpha Gamma Rho National Convention this summer in Vermont.
2012 AGR Classic
The 2012 AGR Classic took place on February 4 & 5 at the Boone County Fair Grounds. This year’s Classic featured nearly 300 exhibitors. On Saturday 272 heifers were shown and the nearly 250 steers were shown on Sunday. The exhibitors came from 10 different states. In addition to Missouri, we had cattle from Indiana, Illinois, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Kentucky, California, and Wisconsin. We would like to thank all of the exhibitors and sponsors that made our show successful. Michael Gillum and Chase Heath were the co-chairman for this years show.2012 Spring Initiates
Pictured above (Spring Class '12) are the newest additions to Alpha Gamma Rho, Theta Chapter. We are proud to have them as brothers.Front Row, L to R: Josh Hyde (Marshfield), Michael Patterson (Shelbina), Tyler Hogle (Trimble)
Row 2, L to R: Tyler Moses (Springfield), Devon Whitlock (Strafford) Josh Glendenning (Lebanon)
Back Row, L to R: Casey Heiman (Butler), Zach Nixon (Kahoka)
Theta Chapter Acquires New Podium
Josh Roling, 2012 Noble Ruler and Jared Henderson, 2011 Noble Ruler grab a photo opportunity with Theta’s new podium.
When Jared Henderson became Noble Ruler, he quickly realized the podium used for Chapter meetings and events was in a sad state of disrepair. He shopped for a new one, and found out rather quickly a new podium would not only be costly, but it would be a generic podium with the possibility of adding a plaque to identify it as the AGR podium.
Enter Harry Thompson (Theta 1972) master craftsman. When Brother Thompson was contacted, he not only volunteered to build a podium, he refused monies to purchase the wood. He said he had wanted to do something for the Chapter for many years and it would be his pleasure to build and donate a new podium to Theta Chapter.
Brother Thompson delivered the podium over semester break, just in time for the first Chapter meeting of 2012. It is a true work of art; beautiful wood, masterfully built, and personalized with the AGR Crest and letters on the front. We are grateful to Brother Harry Thompson for his gift. We promise to take great care and preserve it for use by decades of AGR Brothers.
Note: Harry is the father of Benjamin Thompson (Theta, 2000) and the father-in-law of Scott A. Gard (Theta, 1995)
Fall 2011 Initiate Class
Finally Got the Banner
Starting a year ago the campus Greek Life began awarding the Academic Achievement banners to the students of Greek houses who were in the top tier of fraternities. Last year, brother Steve Ellis, issued a challenge the men of Alpha Gamma Rho at Founder's Day to have that banner hanging in front of our house next year. We set our minds to achieving the best grades possible, and we did. This past semester we had over half of our members achieve the Payne/Longwell scholarship, a scholarship awarded to brothers who have a semester GPA of 3.25 or greater. Our combined GPA as a house was 3.10, placing us 4th overall in the Greek system. We were above the University average of 3.034, above the all male average of 2.893, and above the all fraternal average of 2.780.
Every year we look to build upon our successes and we hope that we will we soon reach the number one spot for grades.