During a 30-plus-year term as his chapter’s AVC president, Order of the Golden Heart Recipient John Abraham, Cincinnati ’77, presided over the construction of a powerhouse chapter through incremental, innovative improvements. Now he’s helping build a chapter house to match.

As the creator of the Balanced Man Scholarship in 1986, the Cincinnati Chapter brought year-round recruitment to the campus. The chapter was an early adopter of the Balanced Man Program in 1997, though the designation was more of a formality as they were already running a chapter under the philosophies of the program.

In 2004, Ohio Theta became one of SigEp’s first Residential Learning Communities. The foundation of a high-performing Balanced Man Program combined with increased faculty involvement “lit a fire” in the chapter, according to Abraham. Manpower was regularly increasing, GPA was consistently high, and the chapter was viewed as one of the top student organizations on campus.

The chapter’s strength and size during the previous decades was bearing fruit in the form of a talented bench of volunteers. “These weren’t just average guys, they were Buchanan Cup guys from the last 30 years. Architects, engineers and big business guys,” said Abraham. These volunteers were recruited gradually by matching volunteer interests to organizational needs. Abraham learned the art of volunteer recruitment from men like Phil Shepardson, ’68, who preceded him as AVC president and continued to volunteer after passing the gavel. “We break up the roles into small responsibilities, otherwise it becomes a job. Volunteering should be a hobby,” explained Abraham. This strategy enabled the AVC to achieve a level of sophistication that caused their bankers to ask for spreadsheet lessons.

Some advice from the guy who prefers SigEp volunteer work to golf? “Don’t let it become overwhelming to you, you’ll burnout and leave. Let some things go. Pace yourself. The students matter.

Despite the chapter’s strong operational footing, the facility had a foundation that was beginning to crack. The needs became obvious, and Abraham, along with the AVC, wanted to uphold their standards for managing the ambitious project with the same precision they held for chapter operations. They began by purchasing an adjacent property that included an apartment building. That allowed them to learn how to manage a larger facility. SigEp National Housing staff challenged them to think even bigger. “They told us we weren’t thinking big enough,” recalled Abraham.

The university was on a building spree, and peer fraternities were upgrading. In the meantime, the chapter had grown to over 125 men and continued to expand and diversify its programming. Ohio Theta was ready. The AVC recruited Dean Lutton, ’01, as the project architect. Aside from his design expertise, Lutton knew the chapter well. Originally recruited through the Balanced Man Scholarship, Lutton valued the chapter’s culture and innovative programming. “It was going to be difficult to maintain our position at the top without a facility to match,” said Lutton.

The AVC took the strategy they used to build a successful chapter and applied it to the facility design process. They began by looking at trends in local and national student housing. “The university is our housing competitor,” said Abraham. In the competition, they saw more individual living space and more privacy. They also saw an opportunity to innovate by providing additional academic space including classrooms, faculty office space and student meeting rooms that would soon host classes for brothers as well as members of sororities. “It’s like our own little campus,” said Faculty Fellow and Balanced Man Steward Ric Sweeney, Renaissance. “At the end of the day, our goal is to be a partner in higher education.”

Along the way, a shocking twist necessitated an all-call to Ohio Theta’s talented volunteers. Abraham learned he had cancer. “It was God’s way of telling me to hand the torch off,” he remembered. As a result, he stepped back as a “utility player,” and Rey Medina, ’99, took the reins as AVC president. Rey had served as chapter president and was mentored by Abraham during his time as an undergraduate.

“We always reiterate that good chapters work together through adversity,” said Medina. Despite a facility in midconstruction, the chapter just recruited 49 new members, the largest fall recruitment in the chapter’s history. Even a sudden change in AVC leadership failed to slow them down—the facility that will propel the chapter into the future is nearly complete. And Abraham is now cancer free.

Beyond the building lies a model of SigEp sustainability and a determination to impact generations of students, one brick and one balanced man at a time.