What It Means to Be a True Gentleman

During the year 1899, in the state of Virginia, there was a man named Mr. John Walter Wayland who, at the time, entered into a contest with only the hopes of coming out as the winner. Many years ago, The Baltimore Sun came up with a competition for the best definition of a “True Gentleman.” After his submission, Mr. John Walter Wayland was nonetheless selected as the winner, with his definition of the “True Gentleman” being printed in the Baltimore newspaper as well as in many other publications thereafter. For many years, the author of the “True Gentleman” was thought to be anonymous, until the 1970’s when the editor of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon pledge manual, The Phoenix, Mr. Joseph Walt, discovered that the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis also used the “True Gentleman” definition in their manual, where they came to find the true author to be Mr. John Walter Wayland. However, it wasn't until 2001, during the Fraternity Convention in Orlando, Florida, that it was officially adopted as Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s creed. As a future member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity, I am expected to know, understand, and exemplify Mr. John Walter Wayland’s definition of the “True Gentleman,” which reads: “The True Gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from good will and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self control is equal to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity; who is himself humbled if necessity compels him to humble another; who does not flatter wealth, cringe before power, or boast of his own possessions or achievements; who speaks with frankness but always with sincerity and sympathy; whose deed follows his word; who thinks of the rights and feelings of others rather than his own; and who appears well in any company; a man with whom honor is sacred and virtue safe” (Mr. John Walter Wayland – Virginia 1899). In one way, I view the “True