Steve Cunningham credits the late Stephen Grebe ‘67, who passed away in 1997, as a major influence on his decision to pledge Alpha Chi Rho. “He was president of the Glee Club my freshman year, and he was in Alpha Chi Rho.” In addition to his friend’s advice, he was seeking for a group that could help him find his place on campus.
“I also wanted an identity with a smaller group (than the Glee Club). There were fraternities at Penn that were known for certain identities, like Delta Tau Delta, which was right next door, was more of a jock fraternity, but Alpha Chi Rho didn’t have any of those kinds of identities. It was a very diverse group, and a smart group. That was an attraction.”
He notes the impressive pedigree of his 11-member pledge class, three of whom went on to become doctors. “It was a very accomplished group, including Fred Sanfilippo ’70, probably my best friend. We stayed in touch for a while, but have fallen out of touch He’s had a very, very accomplished career in medicine and research and as an executive also.”
Steve remembers helping anchor the house’s successful IM basketball team along with Fred, who’d faced off against Lew Alcindor while in high school. “We won some games against much larger fraternities. I remember beating Delta Tau Delta in particular. (In that game) I drove to the basket and got knocked into the wall by this guy, but I made the basket. We had a pretty good team between Fred and myself.”
The traditional pledge class breakfast (and prank) for the house sticks out as a favorite tradition from his time in the fraternity. “This was the Spring of ’67. We piled up all the furniture up the stairs, and there was a brother named Elijah Noel ’69; he realized what was going on, and he came down and just like flew over the pile of stuff that was piled up there on the steps.”
On the topic of favor college hangouts, he remembers the Bull & Barrell Saloon on Chestnut Street as the home of “Peanut Night” Wednesdays and really cheap beer. “You’d get free peanuts with the beer, so by the end of the night, there was about a foot thick of peanut shells on the floor.”
Steve majored in History at Penn, “which prepared me for absolutely nothing,” and following a stint in the Army, spent several years across various jobs in commercial real estate finance. He worked his final 18 years as a CFP at Charles Schwab in Phoenix, AZ before retiring in December 2019. While he has spent over two decades in Arizona (moving from Scottsdale to Tucson last year), he gets back to Pennsylvania a few times a year to visit his two children and five grandchildren. Trips to see his daughter, who lives in South Philadelphia, afford him the chance to get back and visit the house from time to time.
“I haven’t done a good job staying in touch with people,” he muses. “But they are people who I remember really well and really liked. It was just a really good group of people – a really good, smart, solid, diverse group of guys – and it gave me an identity there at Penn.”
As a final thought, he adds, “The house – and all that goes along with it – are worth preserving. I’d encourage my fellow brothers, if they haven’t given already, to give.”