Psi Upsilon Alumni Association President Richard Morse died of a heart attack Tuesday evening during the fraternity's monthly alumni association meeting.
Psi Upsilon is better known as the Castle.
Morse, who lived in Springfield, Pa., graduated from the College in 1953. He was 70 years old and is survived by a wife and two sons.
According to Psi Upsilon brothers present during the incident, the house meeting that Morse normally chaired was scheduled for 6 p.m., but Morse wanted to wait a few extra minutes for more people to arrive.
While the group waited and talked in the Castle's Great Hall, Morse reportedly fell to the floor.
Wharton sophomore Rob Jackson and College senior Matthew Asada laid Morse down and checked his breathing. Meanwhile, College senior Stren Lea ran from the building to find a Penn Police officer on Locust Walk, while another brother quickly dialed the appropriate emergency numbers.
The officer accompanied Lea into the house, located at 250 S. 36th Street, and started breathing for Morse through an apparatus.
More Penn Police soon arrived on the scene, and according to Deputy Chief of Investigations William Danks, officers attempted unsuccessfully to resuscitate the man.
Paramedics from the Philadelphia Fire Department received a call from the fraternity at 6:03 p.m. The paramedics were dispatched at 6:04 p.m.
When they arrived on the scene, the paramedics also tried to resuscitate Morse. After several attempts, by paramedics, Morse was pronounced dead at the scene and was taken by stretcher to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania at about 6:30 p.m.
Carlos Marquez, Psi Upsilon undergraduate president, had said yesterday that Morse had a pulse when he left the fraternity house.
Members of Psi Upsilon said they believed there was a lengthy delay before officials could come to Morse's aid mainly because of barricades blocking vehicle access on Locust Walk.
Police officers were finally able to pull down the barricade, but Asada thinks the delay may have been as long as five minutes, and some of the brothers have speculated that five minutes could have made a difference.
"It was terrifying," Lea said. "I mean, HUP was so close -- right across the street. We could have carried him there. I almost did."
Lea abandoned that idea, but did run across Spruce Street to the hospital in search of an ambulance crew. He returned several minutes later when he heard rescue vehicles arrive at the house.
While it is not unusual for fraternity alumni to be active in the futures of their respective houses after graduation, Morse was active as both an alumni advisor and friend to the Castle brothers.
Morse was instrumental in reinstalling the fraternity on campus in 1998, after they had been asked to leave their Locust Walk house eight years earlier for allegedly kidnapping a member of a rival fraternity.
"He was very persistent about getting our house back and doing it right," Lea said. "He was such a determined activist for the Castle."
