Ken Burk ‘80 learned a great deal from Lambda Chi Alpha, including interdependence, adaptability, and hope.
“Some of the brothers know this,” Burk said, “but I am currently dealing with what they tell me is a terminal case of brain cancer, so I don’t know what that timing is, but my main concerns now are dealing with the treatment effects and dealing with the therapy for glioblastoma.
“If Lambda Chi Alpha has done anything, it has taught me the lesson of hope and that has served me well these last four years. I am thankful for that and I am thankful for the brothers who give me an ‘attaboy’ every three months when I have a brain scan. It’s good to have men who are there for me and have my back. The moral support is huge.”
Lambda Chi also imparted some life lessons to Burk that have been instrumental in weathering his current health issues.
“It taught me that hard work pays off,” he said. “It taught me that the good times in life will far outweigh the bad times and you can take comfort in the fact that the bad times will pass quickly. You need to have friends and brothers to help you out because you can’t do it all yourself. You can’t be the Lone Ranger. Don’t be afraid to ask people to be of service. They want to be and they’re just waiting to be asked.
Additionally, Lambda Chi helped Burk adapt to others. “Without Lambda Chi Alpha,” Burk explains, “I wouldn’t be able to live with other people. I would have no idea. I think that’s pretty fundamental. I think I was always a leader but I wouldn’t have learned to live with other people and wouldn’t have learned to loosen up and wouldn’t be the total, real person I am now compared to me in high school.”
While he was a member of the chapter, Burk was involved in the leadership and workings of the chapter, holding the offices of Caterer, High Rho, High Tau, and High Alpha. “In hindsight, I guess I didn’t know how to say ‘no,’” he laughed.
“I gravitated to positions of service and the other things they really gave me was how to be a more social guy, how to chit-chat with people, how to be more well-rounded, how to rush guys, and how to close them.”
Burk completed his BS in Economics and retired at 55 after working 32 years at Signet Corporation where he was the head of the underwriting department for accidental death and dismemberment insurance. He worked with group policies for corporate insurance and oversaw companies operating in warzones.
Burk and his wife, Stephanie Neill, have been married for 16 years and live in the Seattle area. His son, Jeff, is 24 and has a Lambda Chi connection of his own: “He works as a musician and has played some dances at the Lambda Chi house and University of Washington,” Burk said.
When he decided to rush, Burk wanted to get out of the dorms, but he didn’t want to join just any group. “I rushed five or six fraternities and my favorite was Lambda Chi. They weren’t pretentious,” he said. “They were a good group of guys who were relaxed about things, and it was apparent that they enjoyed each other’s company as well.
“I’m an only son and my mother’s family is fairly small as well. I had a lot of friends in high school, but it was important to me to live with a group of men I could form bonds with, and I felt like that was an area that was lacking in my background, and it was the right thing to do.
Burk looked back fondly on his time living in the chapter house. “I enjoyed living there. It was built in 1915 or 1920 or so and it was well-kept. We had a big lot in the back that was probably an acre, so we could play ball back there and park there.”
He also enjoyed the camaraderie that resulted in brothers living together. “We would drop in on each other all the time,” he said, “and spent lots of time in the yard since it was so big. We got a pool table and that was fun.
“We gathered for dinner Monday-Friday and ate family style and would have rush dinners there. It was nice to be together once a day to get caught up and be brothers.”
The communal living also created an environment where the brothers grew and developed important life skills. “I think the value is that it sets us apart from the campus and the dormitories and insists that we have more responsibilities for our living situation than if we were taken care of in the dorms,” he said.
“We had to take care of our own physical plant, run our own kitchen, cut the grass, clean up after ourselves. There were responsibilities that we had that we wouldn’t have had in the dorms or even in an apartment. These are things we would have had no exposure to if we hadn’t been running a rooming house and taking care of things. We had to keep the house up to code and keep the kitchen clean. You had to be vigilant and it taught us character. You learned to take care of things right away and not put them off and you don’t learn those things when you aren’t in communal living. The group is happy when you take care of all of that.”
Additionally, that “roll up our sleeves” attitude extended to other types of experiences with the brothers.
“I felt like the brotherhood at the time within four or five years of my time as a member was not pretentious,” Burk explained. “It wasn’t who you were or how you dressed or where you were from, it was about fellowship and that drew me there and kept me there.
“In 1976-1980, we were still in the throes of learning how to do Associate membership better and that was important to me. I wasn’t interested in joining a fraternity where I had to prove myself through dangerous and stupid hazing. I would have walked away from any place that would have done that to me.”