Paul Seimers ‘ 61 ΣΩΤ, a dedicated engineer and loving family man, passed away peacefully on January 20, 2025. Paul was one of the 13 Charter Members who started Sigma Omega Tau Fraternity, our founding brotherhood, in West Eggleston Hall in October 1958.
Paul received a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute. He did graduate work at The University of Virginia and Virginia Polytechnic Institute in fluid dynamics and heat transfer. Paul joined the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1961. During his NASA career at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, he was involved in many engineering, research, and flight activities as a designer, researcher, principal investigator, experiment development manager, project scientist, and project manager.
He designed hypersonic wind tunnels and arc jet facilities to address the Lunar mission rerun to earth reentry. He served on the Lunar Orbiter Spacecraft Operations team as the assistant to the Space Flight Operations Director.
Paul will be remembered for his pioneering spirit, his love for adventure, and his unwavering dedication to his family and community.
Click here to read more about Paul’s life and his family.
Sam Parsons ‘ 73 ΙΞ392 passed away on September 25, 2024.
Sam graduated from Holy Cross High School, then joined the Marine Corps, serving during the Vietnam conflict (Oorah!). His heart then took him out west where he ran hunt camps, worked cattle ranches and attended West Texas State Uniersity. Returning home, he attended Virginia Tech, majoring in creative writing. He wrote articles for western magazines, local newspapers, and even published a few of his own short story collections.
His professional career was in real estate, first working at Smith Mountain Lake in the early years, selling property by boat. He then moved to Lynchburg where he owned a tropical plant business and continued to sell unimproved property and farms as well as land tracts he bought and subdivided for resale.
Click here to read more about Sam’s life and his family.
Frank W. “Willi” Harksen ‘ 79 ΣΛ93 of Mechanicsville, VA, passed away on Monday, December 22, 2025.
Bill graduated from Virginia Tech and was a proud member of the fraternity. He worked for the City of Richmond for many years before joining Hanover County where he served for over 20 years, first in the department of public utilities, then as Deputy County Administrator. After he retired, he enjoyed spending time at Virginia Beach. Bill was a lifelong tinkerer and enjoyed “fixing” things around his home with near-daily trips to the hardware store.
Click here to read more about Willi’s life and his family.
Reid William Ammen ’74 ΣΛ51 of Roanoke, Va., and formerly of Calabash, N.C., passed away peacefully on Saturday, May 17, 2025, following a battle with esophageal cancer.
Reid lived a full life: he was his own boss working as a professional certified public accountant (luckily, as he took an afternoon nap daily), loved every dog he ever met, and selflessly served others through many volunteer endeavors in the community and his church.
Click here to read more about Reed’s life and his family.
(L to R – mostly): Annette Mashburn, Mike Zigler, Bill Mashburn, Carol Kessler, Woody Kessler, Brenda Moorefield, Mike Moorefield, Eric Noonkester, Beryl Norman, Bill Norman, Bob Bragg, Brian Behringer, Jerry Reiley, Tracy Behringer, David Bowles, Kevin King, Ann Holcombe, Pat Matus, Samantha Matus, Eddie Holcombe, Dave Rice, Jenny Rivers, Ann Rice, Dennis Parsons, Linda Parsons, Bill Comer, Sallie Noonkester, John Windsor, Cindy Windsor, Trish Comer, Bill Harksen, Mark Rivers, Nicole XX, Tim McDermott, Esther McDermott, Connie Gragnani, Pauline Elliott, Rudy Gragnani, Brenda Kyle, Ray Kyle, David Elliott.
“You can’t really know where you’re going until you know where you have been” – Maya Angelou
The past two years have been a period of amazing growth and revitalization for our brotherhood; but with growth comes challenges. Please take a minute to download and review this presentation of the active chapter’s progress over the past two years, including our steps forward.
The file is linked below.
Highlights:
May ’22 | After having been off-campus for five years, James Fink, Zach Lansbury, and Joe Pisciotta accept first three bids
Sep ’22 | 14 associate members go through the AM Ceremony conducted by an alumni Ritual Team at the University Club
Nov ’22 | 27 brothers are initiated
May ’23 | Outstanding Alumnus awarded by FSL
Oct ’23 | Received ΛΧΑ Charter in 12 months
Jan ’24 | Recognized for blood drive participation at the High Alpha / Neville Alumni College
May ’24 | Awarded Emerging Fraternity of the Year by Fraternity and Sorority Life
Aug ’24 | Placed second in the Lambda Chi Academy Gold Division and earned $1,000 from ΛΧΑ headquarters
Aug ’24 | The chapter received the Warren A. Cole Recruitment Award
Aug ’24 | Jack DiFilippo selected to join the 21 brother International Ritual Exemplification Team and acknowledged for his leadership by ΛΧΑ headquarters
Aug ’24 | The chapter successfully nominated Tim McDermott as High Pi of the Year, and he was also inducted into the ΛΧΑ Order of Merit
Greg Venning’74 ΣΛ41, 72, of Roanoke, VA, passed away January 4, 2024. Greg was raised in Key West, Florida during his early childhood, and later moved to Roanoke, VA, and graduated from Cave Spring High School. He studied at the University of Miami School of Oceanography and finished his education with a business degree at Virginia Tech. Greg made Smith Mountain Lake his home since soon after he graduated.
Greg was a member of the fraternity when it selected Lambda Chi Alpha as the successor fraternity to our founding as Sigma Omega Tau and was the 41st initiate of Lambda Chi Alpha at Virginia Tech.
Throughout Greg’s 50 years living at Mountain Lake, he fished nearly every morning and embraced his passion for lake living by designing and building waterfront communities, homes, and decks.
Click here to read more about Greg’s life and his family.
With the fall semester underway and rush quickly approaching we would like to provide an update of the active chapter’s accomplishments in the past year and our upcoming plans.
First and foremost we would like to announce that as of August 11th, 2023, the Grand High Zeta has approved our charter application! This means that on September 8th, 2023, one year after our first Associate Member Ceremony, the Sigma-Lambda Zeta will officially be chartered again and permitted use of 413 E. Roanoke St. for chapter functions. This is a momentous accomplishment and was achieved in record time. The brotherhood is extremely proud.
We would like to highlight the strength of our brotherhood. This has been evident in every aspect of our operations, notably in our remarkable recruitment of 45 active brothers and our dedication to philanthropy. We made giving back a priority and were able to place first in Alpha Phi’s Cupid Heart Health Week as well as top three in multiple other sororities philanthropy weeks. Our brothers also volunteered with the Blacksburg Interfaith Food Pantry, raising a total of approximately $1,000 and 2,500 pounds of food. We are excited to continue our volunteering and philanthropy efforts, including hosting our annual pumpkin smash.
Internally, the chapter has seen incredible growth. After our first group of brothers were initiated by the Epsilon-Omicron Zeta (UTK), our High Phi, Jack DiFillipo ’25 ΣΛ837, instructed the first ritual team and led a flawless initiation for our second class of brothers. Our brotherhood and accountability contributed significantly toward this accomplishment. The High Iota, Bill Young ’24 ΣΛ853, has also done a phenomenal job and kept the chapter without incident. Even throughout all of this hard work the brothers remained focused on academics, resulting in a significant chapter GPA increase from 3.07 to 3.27, placing us in the top 10 IFC fraternities. Thanks to generous alumni contributions we were able to award four undergraduate brothers with academic scholarships.
Our High Alpha, James Fink ’24 ΣΛ840, is back from a semester in Spain. The Interim-High Alpha, Braxton Duvall ’24 ΣΛ838, will be serving as Co-High Delta with Joe Ferguson ’25 ΣΛ839. New officer elections will be held at the end of the fall semester. We are planning a Chartering Banquet to be held on the 28th of October during our Homecoming and 65th Anniversary Weekend. We want to meet as many brothers as possible! More details will be posted soon.
It’s a great time for Lambda Chi and the Sigma-Lambda Zeta. If you have any questions or would like to contact the active chapter, please contact High Rho, Joe Pisciotta ΣΛ848, listed below.
George Washington Lester’97 ΣΛ401, IV, 48, of Cornelius, NC, passed away unexpectedly on Monday, February 27, 2023. He was born in Martinsville, Virginia, on December 30, 1974, the son of George Washington Lester, II and Beatrice Worrell Lester.
George greeted each day with gladness and brought spontaneity, adventure, wisdom and laughter into the lives of those who knew him. George found peace and joy on the water, even in childhood, and made his home on the shores of Lake Norman in North Carolina for most of his adult life. He loved music and could often be found strumming a tune on his ukulele. He was an Eagle Scout, a graduate of Virginia Tech, and a veteran of the United States Navy.
We are excited to announce that our second initiation ritual, the first performed by our own Ritual Team, will take place at 10:00 am on Saturday, April 1st, at Blacksburg Baptist Church located at 550 North Main Street. We would love to have as many alumni brothers come out to the Ritual as possible. Please contact High Phi Jack DiFilippo’24 ΣΛ837 (jcdifilippo44@gmail.com), High Pi Tim McDermott’77 ΣΛ64(tamcdermott@me.com) or myself, Ash Umaselvan, if you can make it and for more information and/or coordination. You can also register by clicking here.
Lambda Chi Alpha at Virginia Tech 
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