Donor Spotlight: Peter Schwartz ’68

We want to take this time to say THANK YOU to Peter Schwartz ’68 for his continued support of Xi Chapter of Zeta Beta Tau over the years. We recently caught up with Peter  and asked him about where life has taken him, Zeta Beta Tau memories, and what Xi Chapter means to him today. Here’s what he had to say.  

Why have you remained so dedicated to Zeta Beta Tau ?

It may seem trite (or obvious), but the entirety of my experience at Georgia Tech shaped whatever I was able to achieve in my career. I came to Tech in 1964 from Akron, Ohio. I had never been on campus (or to Atlanta) until that day. Campus visits in 1964 were the exception rather than the rule, and most students enrolled in a school near their home. Everything I knew about Tech was from the photographs in the catalog and recruiting brochures. The brotherhood I experienced at Phi Ep/ZBT was a major factor in my academic success at Tech. It is not an exaggeration to say that I owe a great deal to my Big Brother Howard Levy’s almost literally dragging me to the library to study during my freshman year, Friday nights included. The social aspects, too, cannot be unappreciated. Tech, at that time, was overwhelmingly male, freshman (unless you were from Atlanta or living with relatives in Atlanta) had to live on campus and could not have a car, and all of your friends were back home anyway. Giving back, after getting so much, seems like a “no-brainer”, especially if it helps provide a similar experience for some other “Rat.”

How has being in Zeta Beta Tau changed your life? 

Part of the answer to the first question addresses this. But it is really difficult to express how the totality of experience at Tech is wrapped up with the experience of the Chapter and the Brothers. I interacted with people from everywhere–if you count the quadrilateral with vertices at NYC-Omaha-Dallas-Miami as everywhere, and it pretty much is–with such a broad range of backgrounds and life experiences and talents as can be imagined. And that doesn’t even include the antics of Sheba the Wonder Dog. I cannot imagine what Tech would have been like without them.

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