http://www.atogatech.org/s/604/index.aspx?sid=604&gid=1&pgid=258&cid=1010&ecid=1010&crid=0&calpgid=61&calcid=793
From ATO publication:
When Bill Douglas ’87 came to Georgia tech in 1982 he was new to the Greek system, but a friend helped introduce him to the promise of pledging ATO.
“I was a freshman pledge in 1982. I had come from a small high school and rushing a fraternity was a totally new concept,” Bill said. “I met Tom Noonan ’85 standing on a corner outside the ATO house and he told me I had to see the place. In retrospect, he had to be one of the best salesman I’ve ever met.”
Bill pledged ATO just a week later.
The dorm was near the football stadium so rather than the usual interview process, Bill hung out with the brothers, playing basketball, running up the steps of the stadium, and spending time around one another. Overall, he said it didn’t feel like an interview process.
“I hadn’t really known what a fraternity was up to that point, but it just felt like the right move to pledge,” Bill said. “Later on, Tom became my big brother.”
Though Bill described himself as naïve about the Greek system at the time, he was quickly impressed with the ATO brothers and their relationships to each other.
“The bonds of friendship were real and tight,” Bill said. “At the risk of sounding like a girl, they were on genuine, intimate terms. They knew each other.”
Bill recalled that the ATO brothers planned football weekend events, and far from the stereotype of fraternity brothers over indulging in party behavior, the trips were family friendly with their sisters, brothers, and parents able to come along and enjoy the fun the ATO brothers had together.
“It was like friendship on steroids, with all the closeness magnified” Bill said. “It wasn’t just a bunch of guys getting drunk. It was genuine.”
Once Bill made it through the pledge process, he really began to appreciate the strength and diversity of the ATO brothers. He said it wasn’t like other fraternities that would recruit based on the strength of the person’s grades or how good they were at basketball or soccer. The brothers each had their own strengths and together made for a stronger chapter.
“The mix of degrees was all over the board, with every kind of engineering student, management students, and future architects,” Bill said.
Though ATO had a powerful mix of skills and interests, it had an overall focus on success that helped Bill get through the early part of his tenure at the university.
“I did not do well my first quarter. The brothers helped turn my grades around during my second semester,” Bill said. “We had Word, a program within ATO that included studying class materials we had archived from brothers who had been through the classes. Upper classman who had been in the same program would tutor me. It was informal and powerful – I could just walk into the house and say I needed help and our Scholastic Chairman kept a list of people that specialized in different areas and could be called on to help me.”
When Bill struggled with chemistry, a brother who went by the moniker “Moose” (whose real name Bill can’t recall, as the nickname was so ubiquitous) became his mentor. When Bill got stuck on differential equations two other brothers sat him down and helped him. In return, when Bill became a junior he provided mentoring and participated in study groups for younger brothers. Despite the strong focus on academics, Bill recalls a strong focus as well. “
“We had ridiculously good parties that pulled girls from all sides of campus and Atlanta, but it was still your responsibility to have grades first,” Bill said. “Particularly I remember having a huge Hawaiian party for which we built a three-story structure, dug a pool in our yard, and had thousands of people attend. We made a logo for the party, printed customized cups and t-shirts, and generally went full out.”
As an active brother, Bill never passed up the opportunity to help out within the chapter. For example, he served as Hawaiian Party Chairman which an important responsibility was considering the scope of the event.
In addition to the “killer” parties, Bill fondly recalls the mischief the brothers got up to when hanging around the house.
“There were other fraternity and sorority houses visible from our house, so as a little practical joke we created a sort of catapult of sling shot and placed it on our roof,” Bill said. “We used it to launch water balloons at the other houses and they traveled quite a distance to hit those houses. It was all in good fun.”
Bill’s business travel hasn’t brought him back to campus over the past ten years, but he is active in the alumni association and keeps in touch with the brothers from his era. Though he’s more likely to reach out by phone, Facebook has been useful for setting up possible rendezvous with the other brothers.
“Facebook is convenient because I can put out there that I’ll be in Las Vegas on any given week and see if anybody else will be around.
Bill lives in Denver, Colorado where he is an entrepreneur managing three separate ventures. He has a son who is interested in Georgia Tech, but Bill believes it’s most likely his son will want to stay in Denver.
“I look fondly back on my time with ATO,” Bill said. “It helped change me from a naïve young kid to a mature young man in my five years with the fraternity,” Bill said. “Georgia Tech provided the academic growth but it was ATO that helped me grow into a man.”
Bill is a single dad living with two teenage boys. He would like to hear from more brothers from his era and may be contacted at bdouglas@essentialink.com or 720-259-4975.
