Get to know your new Grand Consul
BY NATHANAEL HAWTHORNE, YOUNGSTOWN 2020
74th Grand Consul Ryan Temby, RUTGERS 1990, embodies a lifetime of service shaped by inspiration, mentorship and an unwavering belief in the power of brotherhood. As an undergraduate, he was struck by the generosity of alumni who had no direct ties to his chapter yet devoted themselves to its success, teaching him the lasting impact of selfless service. That lesson fueled his own journey as an alumnus first through local volunteer roles, later as a member of the Executive Committee and now as Grand Consul. What keeps him most inspired are the undergraduates whose passion, growth and dedication remind him why Sigma Chi matters. While challenges like accountability can weigh heavily, he finds renewal in the transformative stories of brothers whose lives have been changed through the Fraternity. Guided by mentors and driven by gratitude, he continues to lead Sigma Chi toward excellence, fellowship and purpose.
What inspired you to get involved as an alumnus?
I was blown away as an undergraduate. The number of alumni who came from Sigma Chi, who had no affiliation with any one of us, any of the members of the chapter or any members of Rutgers at all. They came from small colleges in the middle of Pennsylvania. They came from big colleges in the Southeast, and because we needed them and because we wanted to be a Sigma Chi chapter, suddenly, these brothers just arrived. They really became part of our chapter. Order of Constantine Sig John MacGillivray, BUCKNELL 1979, being the most notable one. He became our chapter advisor for no particular reason other than his love for Sigma Chi. I was always inspired by that. I always loved the fact that he did that, and somewhat as an undergraduate, was confused by it. I got an opportunity early after graduation to help with the House Corporation and other things. I took a little break while I went and had a family, came back to living in the US and realized I don’t know anyone in Ohio, so I went back to Sigma Chi and see if I can help out. That’s where it all started. Anybody who volunteers knows that once you start volunteering, you get so much out of it that it sort of feeds on itself, and you can never really give back all that you get from the Fraternity. Early on, it was the men who came from everywhere to help us. I realized later on really how important it is and how nice it is to volunteer, and how much I get out of it, and so for good old Sigma Chi, I still get more out of it than I give.
What inspired you to get involved as an alumnus?
For all of us, it’s different, right? I love more than a few things, but I really love the interaction with our undergraduate brothers. I think their enthusiasm is infectious and their problem solving and the learning and the wisdom they gain in our chapters is incredible. I’m very fortunate that I get to go to reunions for chapters that are 100 years old and 75 years old and 40 years old, and I get to meet the founders of those chapters. I get to talk with them. There’s always this epiphany, especially when I meet the founders of a chapter. I always ask them if they realize and understand the impact that their 20-year-old selves had. There are 150 people in the room that never would have met each other, that never would have been together, that never would have shared brotherhood and camaraderie if they didn’t spend all that time starting this chapter and when that hits them, it’s just pure magic. It would be wonderful if all brothers could see the look and the love that people have for their chapter and for Sigma Chi when they go back to those reunions; it’s truly inspiring.
As a volunteer, what’s been one of the most challenging moments you encounter?
I really don’t like dealing with accountability. It robs your soul. I’ve done — not nearly as many as some — a number of membership reviews and those really just take the lifeblood out of you. I’m amazed at how mean people can be to other people to whom they’re supposedly supposed to be helping. How somebody’s ego, in a malicious manner, will take over their being and somehow justify robbing another of their Sigma Chi experience. It’s heartbreaking. It’s the last thing that I want to deal with. But unfortunately, if not me, who? So, if, for some reason, God put me in that spot at that time, well, then it’s mine to deal with, and I’ll deal with it. But it is, it is absolutely the part that breaks my heart.
So, what you said before about the undergraduates sustaining you, and that’s what keeps you coming back, does that outweigh the accountability issues?
Oh, 100 percent. Absolutely, 100 percent. If an undergraduate tells me how he got to college, found Sigma Chi, his whole life changed and he starts to talk about how the brothers helped him and how the virtues that speak to the Fraternity woke him up, that one person describing to me their wonderful Sigma Chi experience can absolve me of hours and hours and hours of accountability misery for sure. Good always outweighs evil, always.
Who would you consider a mentor on your Sigma Chi journey? I know you mentioned your old chapter advisor, but who, along the way, has really helped shape that for you?
You know, some people don’t like the credit. They like to help. They like to be part of someone else’s life, but they don’t really want the credit. Order of Constantine Sig Bill Sapoch, DICKINSON 1984, for certain, is the reason that I’m a Sigma Chi. There is no question about it. Along the journey though, there’s so many people that have inspired me and have just become my friends. I have equally made some wonderful lifelong friends as an alumni and they have helped along the way. It’s a danger when you have so many people that you care about to start naming a couple over others. Certainly, 68th Grand Consul Mike Greenberg, ILLINOIS WESLEYAN 1982, is inspirational. What he’s done for Sigma Chi is incredible. His help with me and guidance is always wonderful. Order of Constantine Sig and Sigma Chi International Fraternity Executive Director Mike Church, ILLINOIS 2005, is dynamic in what he does for the Fraternity, and his help and guidance has been incredible.
71st Grand Consul Steve Schuyler, ARIZONA 1979, 69th Grand Consul Mike Ursillo, BROWN 1978, 73rd Grand Consul Bob Wilson, FORT HAYS 1980. I mean, these are these are people that I served on the Executive Committee with for so long. 72nd Grand Consul Tim Sanderson, WESTERN 1985, and I joined the EC on the same day and we spent all that time together, talking about issues, working through issues and, certainly, when Brother Schuyler (then Grand Consul) got sick, we were put in an odd position. He (Sanderson) was Grand Pro Consul and I was Grand Quaestor. Suddenly the Grand Consul’s ill. What do you do? (Sanderson) and I have become very, very close over the years. In that tragic time we became even closer. For sure, Brother Sanderson is a mentor, but there’s so many more. I mean just thinking of all the other ones that I have there that are so impactful to me. It’s a tough question, because how do you mention a couple and not mention all of them? There are literally hundreds. If you think of the interaction you have with all the people you’ve ever met or been with, you end up with a lifetime of folks who are both well-meaning and mentors in any given moment. It’s almost one that saddens me to answer, because I think of them, I think of all of them, and love all of them in the same way, regardless of time and effort, so just mentioning a few doesn’t seem fitting.
What made you want to make the jump to serve on the Executive Committee and serve Sigma Chi in that way?
I think when everybody is initiated, they have this feeling of “I’d like to run a fraternity. I think I could. I could do okay at it.” I don’t think there’s a person who gets initiated and says, “Hey, Grand Consul’s is a pretty cool role. That would be something that I could do,” and then it sort of fleets away. Then from time to time, you meet some people who say some things to you that you’d wonder, “hmm, did they think I could possibly be one of the leaders of the Fraternity?” And mine came in two places, really. In 1991, I went to a workshop at Miami, Ohio as an alumni. I ran into 55th Grand Consul Thomas Bell, MISSISSIPPI STATE 1935, and Order of Constantine Sig and Significant Sig Merlin Olson, UTAH STATE 1962. I asked Bell when he wanted to be Grand Consul and how he went about doing it. I said it would never happen for me because I was a kid from a colony and, of course, Bell said: “Well I was from a colony. What are you talking about? You’re a member of the Fraternity. You’re either initiated or you’re not.” Then he went into the sort of lecture about it all, gave me a big embrace and told me that if I started volunteering and doing all the right things, there’s no reason I couldn’t be Grand Consul one day. I tucked that away. The other is when I was in a membership review and it was particularly ugly. A brother, Order of Constantine Sig Al Cuite, TULSA 1966, and I were talking about the membership review report, lamenting all of the misery we had in the day and trying to make sense of how they got to where they got to and what we were going to do about getting this chapter better. At some point, for no particular reason, Cuite said I should go into leadership of the Fraternity. After that, I became a Grand Praetor. The EC was about to expand the Grand Praetor Representatives to two instead of one and, since I wasn’t going to knock anybody out of their position, I figured I would run for the second spot. That’s really how I got involved with the EC — by one vote, by the way. Imagine if that vote went the other direction? It would have been over for me.
Why is it that volunteers are so vital to Sigma Chi success?
One, we’re volunteer run organization, and two, we do so much that we can never really afford to pay all the people that we would need to actually put on all of the leadership symposiums and all the training that we do, and all the support that we give to our undergraduates, from the chapter advisor level to the chapter advisory boards, the Grand Praetors, the boards that the Grand Praetors use, the alumni chapters, the staff that does the the facilitation (at Krach Transformational Leaders Workshop), clear up to the EC and others. There’s just simply not enough money to cover all of those things, and so our volunteers are the lifeblood of the Fraternity. One of the problems we have, and it’s a wonderful problem, is that we have more volunteers than we have roles for and that’s why I’m so excited about changing Officer Training, because we’ll have another 700 or 800 designated roles for volunteers to take. We’ll be able to fill another 800 slots with dedicated roles for them to do with meaning and purpose, something they’ll find value in and something that will inspire them and inspire undergraduate brothers while they’re doing it.
At Grand chapter you outlined some of your goals for the biennium. Can you briefly explain why those goals are so important to you?
You don’t build those goals in the day, and it certainly hasn’t happened since Grand Chapter. I’ve been on the Executive Committee 11 years, and I have been watching and seeing and determining what I thought were the things that were needed most at this moment. It’s not flashy, it’s not exciting. There’s no great announcements going to be made. No one, in five years, is going to remember all the things that happened during this biennium, but quite honestly, it’s probably the most important thing that we need to do since 65th Grand Consul Bob Jones, RENSSELAER 1973, really was the last time we had an overhaul of our operations. It’s time. Our return to excellence campaign, which is going to include a refresh of Preparation for Brotherhood, a refresh, really a transformation of Officer Training Academy, changes to our chapter enhancement program, a re-emphasis and retraining on recruiting and growth are really what the Fraternity needs right now.
You put emphasis on Sigma Chi not tolerating hazing. How do all chapters ensure accountability Fraternity-wide?
Hazing is an unbelievable cancer, not just to the young man it’s happening to, but for the effect it has on everybody else. Hazing is one or several people’s ego turned into malice that decides it’s more important for them and their ego than it is for that person, that other young brother’s Sigma Chi experience, and they’re robbing them of it. It has no place in our Order. It has nothing to do with who we are in any way, shape or form. In fact, it’s the exact opposite of who we say we are. The reason we don’t do it is because who we are as Sigma Chi says that we’re not going to do it. We’re simply not going to attack people. We’re going to help them, we’re going to treat them with respect and we’re going to bring them into our brotherhood. Hazing needs to stop. It’s quite simply anti-Sigma Chi, and when I say just stop it, I mean, just stop it. I don’t need to prove to you to stop it. I don’t need to nag you to stop it. I don’t need to beg. Just stop it. Stop it now. It’s really every brother’s responsibility to stop it. As far as accountability goes, if everybody, every brother, just simply held themselves accountable, it would end tomorrow. If that brother can’t hold himself accountable, then the chapter’s judicial system should hold him accountable, because it should only be a couple of people who’ve gone astray. It doesn’t need to be drastic or Draconian. They just need to be told to knock it off. If, for some reason, the entire chapter’s decided, or the leadership of the chapter’s decided, that they’re going to go wayward and they don’t really want to be Sigma Chis? Well, I’ll help them with that, because we simply don’t need anybody in our Order who isn’t going to live up to the promises that they made.
In your opinion, what is the largest area for improvement that Sigma Chi can continue to bolster, and what have you seen that Sigma Chi exceeds at?
We are excellent at raising money for the Huntsman Cancer Foundation. There is no question about that. A motivated group of Sigma Chis can do anything, absolutely anything. For good or, unfortunately, for ugly. So, what are we good at? We are good at getting things done. We are good at recruitment. We’re good at running fraternities when we’ve got the right training in place. We’re very good at brotherhood. We are very good at maintaining a brotherhood and building a fellowship. We’re good at all those things. I wish that we were better, and we will get better at it, at community service. We’ve lost that sometime during COVID-19. We’ve lost it not only in our undergraduate chapters, but we’ve also lost it in our alumni chapters, and we need to get back to it. When you give selflessly to another, with no chance of any gain, you get something back in your soul. I think we’ve lost that, and we need to make sure that our brothers are getting that feeling back in there. Community service helps you as a person overall, gives you character and brings you, brings you value that you don’t know you’re going to gain today, but you’ll certainly enjoy it for the rest of your life. I’d like to get us back to that, if we could. That’s why we signed the deal with the Red Cross. Hopefully that gets infectious.
I really don’t understand why we don’t run every Interfraternity Council, quite honestly, and I’m going to say: Brothers, if we’re allowing other men to run the IFCs, then we should have offered them a bid. If it’s not us, why didn’t we invite those men to be part of our Fraternity? We should be in charge in several executive positions of every IFC, making sure that we are fundamentally involved, controlling the votes and running the IFC at every level. Furthermore, I really don’t understand why we don’t control every student government organization for exactly the same reasons. There are some wonderful sorority women and other women on campus that I think should be in some roles too, but we ought to be very, very active in student government across the board. Unfortunately, we get into our Sigma Chi chapters, and then we stop looking for other places to volunteer. We stop looking for other offices to take. I think we ought to be running for, and winning, student government positions to make the universities better across the board.
Fun, quick-hitting questions!
What’s one of the coolest chapters you’ve had the pleasure of visiting?
Oh, that’s another tough one to answer. Every chapter is so unique and they’re so proud. The coolest is hard. I have fun everywhere I go and I enjoy my time with them everywhere I go. They’re so unique and so proud. I wouldn’t even consider calling out one chapter. No way. Are you kidding me? The first thing that would happen is I’d have every other chapter, and I’ve been to many, calling me out and saying, what do you mean Temby? We had so much fun when you were here. So I have fun at every chapter. I have a great time when I’m there. They all love their brotherhood as much, or more, than I do. It’s always a good time. So, nope. Can’t do that. Sorry.
Would you rather be the funniest or smart person in the room?
Funniest for sure.
If you could give an honorary membership to one famous person, who would it be?
Benjamin Franklin. 100 percent. I still don’t understand how he negotiated for France to come into the Revolutionary War and not make us a protectorate. I would love to spend 10 minutes with him and see how he did that? Truly unbelievable negotiation.
What about someone living currently?
Derek Jeter. If you want to come in, come on! We would love to have you. We’ll take Aaron Judge. I mean, quite honestly, anybody in the Yankees lineup that wants to come be a Sigma Chi, give me a call. We’ll figure out a way for sure. Now Red Sox? Sorry guys. Change teams.
If you could see any music musician or band alive or dead, who would it be?
Springsteen. Springsteen, absolutely. Second? Pink Floyd. Have you ever seen him? Of course I have. But yeah, again, Springsteen, if you want to come be a Sigma Chi, I got you.
Who’s your favorite founder?
Lockwood I think is probably it for all the obvious reasons.
What’s your favorite midnight snack?
I don’t get it very often, but Rutgers has a burger called the Fat Cat, which is served on a hoagie roll and it’s three hamburgers, two eggs, some falafel meat, cheese, lettuce and onions all piled onto a gigantic bun. Do you get that at all when you go back to visit every time? Absolutely. My wife and I both. We stay up and wait until the grease trucks open up at midnight. I think they’ve gotten rid of them, but there’s a restaurant that does it. It opens up around midnight and that’s when you can get it.
Michael Jordan or LeBron James?
LeBron. Jordan had all the training and went up through the collegiate ranks, and had all the coaches and all the mentors, but LeBron is just pure talent. Jordan’s trained talent. LeBron is pure talent.
If you could go back in time and see one historical sports moment, what would it be?
I’d like to see Mickey Mantle play just one game. I got to see him at an old timers game when I was a kid. The Yankees have an old timers game every year and my dad brought us out to see it and we were sitting in the stands and Mickey got up to bat, he’s old at this point and he smacks one into left field. He barely jogs. I mean, he hit the ball so goddamn hard, but barely jogs to first base. My father said, “Hey, remember this. Remember what you just saw.” It was just an old timers game, an exhibition game, but I got to see Mickey Mantle get a base hit.
If there’s one historical moment, not sports related, what would you like to go see?
I would like to see Ronald Reagan lean over to his Russian counterpart, Gorbachev, and ask him to end the nuclear arms race. I would’ve loved to see that. Another pivotal moment in human history that maybe five people saw. Crazy impacts to the entire world for literally the entire world’s population. It was just a moment where he just leaned over and said it. Truly incredible.
