Newsflash: On June 17, 2025, Brother T.A. Heckel (82-F) was named a Seven Lights Alumni by the Annual Awards Selection Committee of Sigma Chi International. T.A. is Epsilon Eta’s 7th Seven Lights Alumni.
T.A. has been a gung-ho Sigma Chi since he was initiated in the fall 1982 semester at Fresno State. As an undergraduate he served as ProConsul and lived in the Chapter House for most of his college years. Plus his older sister and wife were both Sweethearts of Sigma Chi at Fresno State which makes his propensity to get involved even more understandable.
When he graduated in 1987, he joined our alumni chapter and immediately began to contribute by conducting interviews of pledges during initiation doing so for four years. In the 1990s he joined our alumni chapter board and helped to create fun brotherhood building-dinners centered around his passion for wine which he did for five years.
T.A. began his involvement with the Fresno Sigma Chi Endowment Fund in 2011 helping to create one of the largest endowments in the Greek system, $3,000,000 with $120,000 in annual scholarships to our active chapter brothers. He continues as board member after 14 years of service.
He is the “Father of the Fresno Sigma Chi Wine Tasting” that started in 2015 and which has raised $172,154 for our endowment through 2025. All expenses for the event are paid for by committee members allowing us to accurately claim we have zero overhead costs and that 100% of the revenue goes directly into our endowment. T.A. has always paid for all of the wine at the event which is 80% of the cost of the wine tasting. And to add frosting to the cake, T.A. has donated $25,000 to our local endowment.
