Namesake

Namesake refers to a person for whom a pledge class is named after. Being a namesake is among the highest honors that the National Office or a chapter can bestow upon an individual. Note that a chosen namesake does not necessarily have to be a member of the voting chapter, nor even a member of Alpha Phi Omega. Whereas Iota Phi refers to its pledge classes by their namesake, other chapters may refer to their pledge classes in distinct ways, such as Gamma Gamma, where pledge classes are referred to by the namesake's initials (e.g. "WK" for Wilfred Krenek, or "JAM" for Jack A. McKenzie). Some chapters do not use namesakes at all, and refer to their pledge classes in the order they pledge, using Greek letters (the first class would be Alpha, the second Beta, and so on, just as chapters are named).

Selection

In the Fall, the pledge class namesake is chosen by the National Office, and Iota Phi will name that pledge class after the national namesake. In the Spring, each chapter is free to choose their own namesake, so every chapter's Spring namesake will be different. At Iota Phi, it is among the Pledge Parents' duties to submit a proposal for a namesake for the Spring pledge class; however, ultimate authority in the decision rests with the chapter, and the Spring namesake is chosen via voting by the chapter. Generally, the pledge parent's recommendation is followed by the chapter, however.

For a list of Fall class namesakes, see the national site.

Spring Pledge Class Namesake Honorees

The following is a list of known individuals selected to be Iota Phi Spring Pledge Class Namesakes:

Term	Honoree
Spring 1983	Harlan Pratt
Spring 1989	David A. Emery
Spring 1990	Unknown
Spring 1991	Unknown
Spring 1992	Teri Sheets
Spring 1993	Bella Fong
Spring 1994	Chuck and Joanna Ray Dullum
Spring 1995	Allen W. Tchoi
Spring 1996	Alfred Sheets
Spring 1997	Flora Choi
Spring 1998	Andrea (Levy) Isaacs
Spring 1999	Tony Wan
Spring 2000	Mimi Huang
Spring 2001	Elizabeth Tom
Spring 2002	Ernie Hsiung
Spring 2003	Kalen Fu
Spring 2004	Anthony Toy
Spring 2005	Minh Tran
Spring 2006	Krista Fong and Kevin Quan
Spring 2007	Andrew Joseph Mayen
Spring 2008	Aaron Lipton
Spring 2009	Michelle Jaromay
Spring 2010	Dinh Luong