Ed Barnes was already a committed member of the Pi Kappa Alpha family when he entered FSU as a freshman in 1970. His brother Charlie Barnes ’65 and his uncle, Chapter Advisor Ed Cubbon ’29 were deeply involved in leading the chapter toward prosperity.

Ed immediately demonstrated that he was a gifted organizer, especially adept at selling and rushing. His keen instincts toward the complex strategies of rush led him to create the first issue of Pikeboy(later Pikes Illustrated) in 1972.

Within the Greek community, Ed founded the IFC Escort Service and served as its director for two years. He was tapped for membership in The Order of Omega, and received the Ed Cubbon Award for leadership and outstanding devotion to the Fraternity.

His professional life ranged from medical sales (heart pacemakers) in Miami, to becoming a financial analyst in Dallas.  It was this combination medical and financial background that eventually led him back to Tallahassee and his career with the State Agency for Health Care Administration.

While living in Dallas in the 1990s Barnes was recruited by local Pike alumni to try and save the miserable, failing Pike chapter at Southern Methodist University.  The group had only 17 members and was the worst fraternity on campus.

The most immediate advice he gave them resulted in such remarkable success that they agreed to do everything he said if he would just give them direction.  They started winning; they began growing.  Within five years they won their first Robert Adger Smythe Award from Pike National.

Ed Barnes returned to Tallahassee in 1998, and in 2000 he was the obvious choice to become Colony Advisor and Chapter Advisor.

The need to raise money from alumni for a new house was immediate.  “We had been off campus for a decade, and that our proud alumni were still feeling the sting of what happened years ago,” he said. “I knew that our alumni would only contribute to a chapter that looked like they remembered themselves to be: large, prominent and powerful.”

Ed Barnes’ genius was an unerring instinct for taking new, or even bad, chapters and building them to greatness along the fastest course possible.  He resurrected the old Pikeboy, now in the form of Pikes Illustrated,to illustrate the ‘new’ Delta Lambda story in terms that alumni would recognize.

The Colony’s success was breathtaking; all the other fraternities were caught completely off guard. When they were installed in 2001, less then one year after establishment, Pike was the largest fraternity on campus, the Intramural Champions, had more varsity athletes than all the other fraternities combined and a cadre of student leaders including the Homecoming Chief, the Student Body Treasurer, and the Chief Justice of the Student Judicial Board.

In 2005, Pi Kappa Alpha National awarded Ed Barnes the honor of National Chapter Advisor of the Year.

Ed Barnes’ clear vision and relentless oversight were the reasons Pi Kappa Alpha’s dramatic return to FSU in 2000 was unprecedented in its immediate success and in its undergirding, enduring strength.

Charlie and Ed Barnes.

Andy Miller’s father and two uncles were founders of the SAE chapter here in 1948.  An extraordinary natural leader, it is no accident that Andy’s pledging of Pi Kappa Alpha in the fall of 1969 marked the point at which his fraternity began a dramatic rise, and the other fraternity he might have joined would slowly but inexorably fade.

Andy Miller quickly embraced the roles of Rush Chairman and President.  His sister Susan joined ADPi Sorority, and Andy was one of three Pikes in a row to be crowned ADPi Man. His younger brother Bill Miller ’74 joined Pike, and his son Matt Miller ’09 is also an alumnus.

Andy was a brilliant and transformative SMC at Delta Lambda Chapter.  After graduation, his business reputation as a ‘boy genius’ was such that when he was only 24 years old, Florida State University turned over their entire collegiate fundraising apparatus to him.  And he has remained President and CEO of that vast operation for 45 years.

It was Andy Miller’s vision that financed and brought to life the largest contiguous brick stadium complex in the history of America.  And, where there had been acres of old and abandoned warehouses near the football stadium, there is now an entire village of shops, restaurants, bars, student housing and fan-friendly, game-day gathering places.  Officially it’s called College Town, but most Pikes refer to it as ‘Millerville’.

In the 1970s Andy continued to serve alongside Ed Cubbon as President of the Delta Lambda House Corporation.

In 1999, University President Sandy D’Alemberte asked Andy to take charge of fulfilling his vision of a multi-acre park of new fraternity houses.  Miller chose the rolling hills of the old golf course off Ocala Road and set about the daunting task of bringing all the relevant pieces together for the development.

Delta Lambda Chapter returned as a colony in 2000 just as other fraternities were making plans to build in the new park, now called Heritage Grove. Andy was a chief volunteer along with Legends of Delta Lambda Capital Campaign Chairman Brent Wolfe Sembler ’78 in raising millions toward the construction of the new house. Miller also chose the new house’s location, ensuring that anyone’s first view upon entering Heritage Grove is of the Florida State Pike House.

Andy Miller’s name is one of the most respected and admired in Florida State University history. The University has showered him with every honor they can think to offer: He’s in the FSU Athletics Hall of Fame; he was inducted into the Circle of Gold; he received the Moore-Stone Award, the Bernard Sliger Award…and when they ran out of awards they shifted to facilities.  The two-story convention space in University Center is named Andy Miller Hall.

In 2015, Pi Kappa Alpha National awarded Andy Miller the Distinguished Achievement Award for his leadership in making Seminole Boosters, Inc. one of the signature athletic fundraising organizations in America.

Pi Kappa Alpha would never have become the great Delta Lambda Chapter at Florida State if not for Andy Miller’s vision and relentless dedication to the Fraternity.

Miller with fellow DL Legend Brent Sembler

Charlie Barnes is remembered for the role he played as Delta Lambda’s most successful rush chairman, and the longest tenured.  In all, he served a total of four years in that role, two years each before and after active military duty.

As an undergraduate in the 1960s he became Rush Chairman just after the 218 South Wildwood house was built, and he embraced the need for immediate growth in chapter size and quality. His innovative rush programs at Delta Lambda later became the model for all of Pi Kappa Alpha’s National rush programs.

Charlie was a campus leader, serving as IFC Rush Chairman, was tapped for Order of Omega as well as Scabbard & Blade honorary, and he was the only FSU cadet to be twice-named Distinguished Military Student.  He also received the Chicago Tribune Award as FSU’s most outstanding military student.

He returned from Vietnam in 1971 as a decorated combat infantry officer, and resumed his studies to finish his degree.  Now, alongside his brother Ed and Andy Miller, he served two more years as rush chairman.  It was during this time that Delta Lambda distanced itself from its nearest competitors further than any other #1 ranked fraternity chapter in America (ref. Heller Survey).

He was elected to two terms on the Pi Kappa Alpha National Supreme Council, and following that, the position of Pike National Rush Director was created especially for him.

In 1978 he was honored to join Seminole Boosters President & CEO Andy Miller, serving as Executive Director of the Boosters for 35 years.

Charlie is an accomplished writer and speaker, having written and published three books about Seminole Football, and he has been the featured columnist in any number of Florida State athletic and alumni publications including The Report to Boosters, The Overtime Times, the Florida State Times, and Unconquered magazine.  He also wrote and published an insider’s newsletter called The Scalping Knife exclusively for the hundreds of Seminole Booster fundraising volunteers.

Florida State University recognized Charlie’s contributions by electing him to the Circle of Gold, and to the FSU Athletic Hall of Fame.  He also received the George Langford Award in 2012.

In 2015, Charlie and Andy Miller were honored together by Pike National at the National headquarters in Memphis. Miller received the Distinguished Achievement Award for his lifetime of career success, and Charlie received the Pi Kappa Alpha Loyalty Award for his contributions to the Fraternity.

Charlie Barnes became Delta Lambda Chapter Advisor I 1978 following the death of Ed Cubbon in 1977. He served Delta Lambda in that capacity for 20 years.

Ed Cubbon was a varsity basketball star, Chapter President and campus luminary at West Virginia University in the 1930s.  His lifetime of commitment to Pi Kappa Alpha was anchored inside an orbit of adoring family members.  All five Cubbon brothers were initiated into Pi Kappa Alpha, as well as two of his nephews and both of his grandsons.

Ed Cubbon’s relationship with Delta Lambda began after he and his family moved to Tallahassee in 1954.
The Chapter was at its low point regarding housing and strength of membership.  Cubbon became the Chapter Advisor, a title which varied between Alumnus Counselor and Faculty Advisor at the whim of the National Office and the University.  But regardless of title, he served as the primary motivator, inspiration and visionary of Delta Lambda for more than 20 years until his death in 1977.

Cubbon envisioned a complex scenario involving and Delta Lambda and his own Alpha Theta Chapter at West Virginia. He set about convincing the Pi Kappa Alpha National Housing Corporation to finance and build two fraternity houses, one in Tallahassee and the other in Morgantown.  The revenue could then be used to pay the debt and to finance still more Pi Kappa Alpha Chapter Houses.

Through a land swap arrangement with the Florida Legislature, Cubbon was able to secure a large, private parcel on the corner of Wildwood and Jefferson.  Ground was broken in 1965 and the new Pike house was occupied on January 1^st, 1967.  This was his greatest and signature achievement for the Fraternity.

The late 1960s was also a time of protest, hippies and upheaval. Consequently, that era in American history saw a steep downturn in Greek membership.  But Ed Cubbon’s close attention to Delta Lambda as Chapter Advisor kept Pike on a steady course.

At every point, Ed Cubbon encouraged increasing membership size and quality as the key to Delta Lambda dominating the fraternity landscape.  The payoff came in 1973-74 when the Heller Survey recognized Pike at Florida State as not only the top fraternity at FSU, but was also graded further head of its competition than any other #1 ranked Pike chapter in America!

There was little or no money during the Great Depression and so the most valuable thing he owned was the jeweled Pi Kappa Alpha badge for which he had long saved.  He was initiated with that pin; he was married with it, in secret, and each of his four brothers were initiated with it.  His two nephews and both grandsons were also imitated with the Cubbon badge.  The pin is now secured safely within the Delta Lambda Chapter Archives.

Ed Cubbon’s clarity of vision and dynamic leadership across decades ensured that Delta Lambda Chapter would achieve the highest standing of any fraternity at Florida State, and his example sets the standard for all involved alumni who seek the same enduring strength for Delta Lambda.

Ed Cubbon’s nephews: Ted and Tim Sheridan.

Ron is a media personality

The boss.