US AIRMAN BILL HIEGERT IN VIETNAM

2010 THE YEAR OF VALLEY ADVENTURES

Corporal William Dean Hiegert USAF - Photo taken in Vietnam - Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Jerry Berns 2010 - click on image to enlarge.

Bill Hiegert was born on the 6th of December, 1944. He was a graduate of Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California. While attending Los Angeles Pierce College, Bill was initiated into the Phi Delta Psi Fraternity
Bill was a fun-loving man, who loved American blue-grass music. When he returned home, Hiegert became a farmer and wholesale nursery man. He died young, many believe in large measure, due to problems that he returned with from the war.

Bill Hiegert USAF and Jerry Berns USMC in Vietnam.
The young fellows who shared membership in the Phi Delta Psi took "fraternity" very seriously. Like Jerry Berns and Bill Hiegert, at war in Vietnam, they often traveled great distances to see one another.

MEMORABILIA OF THE PHI DELTA PSI FRATERNITY

2010 The Year of Valley Adventures
Photograph of a scrapbook of the Phi Delta Psi Fraternity and the Maple Leaf Society. Photo 1278 - November 2009 display at Los Angeles Pierce College. (click on image to enlarge)
Recent Vietnam era graduates of Valley and Pierce Colleges are shown in this picture include: Dan Kumler, Tom Roe, Al Plouff, Grady Talbot and Bill Hiegert. Grady E. Talbot would become a founding Board Member of The Museum. The Phi Delta Psi was founded in October 1956 at Valley and Pierce Colleges.

Among the earliest supporters of the movement to create The Museum of the San Fernando Valley were members of the Maple Leaf Society, an alumni group from Los Angeles Valley, Pierce, and City Colleges. The Society is an outgrowth of the Phi Delta Psi Fraternity that also had chapters at California State University Northridge, Moorpark College and Virginia Technical Institute. The Maple Leaf Society provides scholarships for college students. The Museum of the San Fernando Valley archives the history of the Phi Delta Psi / Maple Leaf Society, along with the records of other social and fraternal organizations of the greater San Fernando Valley.

THE MUSEUM OF THE SAN FERNANDO VALLEY ARCHIVES FRATERNITY AND SORORITY RECORDS

Phi Delta Psi Membership Card - Archives of The Museum of the San Fernando Valley - Gift of Vic Salerno (click on image to enlarge)

Fraternities and sororities were a very serious matter on college campuses in the 1950s and 60s. The Psi Delta Psi Fraternity had chapters at LA Valley and Pierce Colleges, San Fernando Valley State College (CSUN) and LA City College. Later on, the organization had chapters at Moorpark College and Virginia Institute of Technology.
The Museum of the San Fernando Valley archives the history and memorabilia of these organizations.

PIERCE COLLEGE GREEK ORGANIZATIONS 1960s

Pierce College Greek Organizations 1960s - Phi Delta Psi Archive - The Museum of the San Fernando Valley
In the 1960s Los Angeles Pierce and Los Angeles Valley College had local Greek letter organizations. The largest of these was the Phi Delta Psi Fraternity, which eventually had chapters at Valley, Pierce, LA City College, Moorpark College, Cal State Northridge and Virginia Tech. The San Fernando Valley was far more rural then, and fraternities cause less disruption to suburban life. Phi Delta Psi's alumni created the Maple Leaf Brotherhood, which continues in existence to this day. It's chief activity is the provision of scholarships on the campuses where the Fraternity had chapters. The Fraternity was founded at Valley College on October 13th, 1956 by veterans of Korean War and other students.
Theta Chi Omega and Zeta Tau were sororities at Pierce College.