Joe Tonsmeire was a typical Auburn student in 1967.
He pledged Phi Delta Theta his freshman year and made average grades.
After his death in March 2007 from bone cancer, the Phi Delta Theta educational foundation set up a living memorial leadership fund in his name.
The fund awards a $2,000 scholarship to a current Phi Delt brother who shares the leadership qualities Tonsmeire exhibited.
The 2010 Joe Tonsmeire Leadership Award recipient is Andrew Hooper, senior in accounting.
"I feel fantastic (about the scholarship), and I think it is something that is definitely a wonderful honor," Hooper said. "However, it is something that certainly wouldn't have been possible without help from a lot of other people."
A review committee with Phi Delta Theta selected Hooper from a list of several candidates.
While the other candidates had admirable records, the review committee felt Hooper best embodied the attributes that Tonsmeire is remembered and revered by the fraternity.
Hooper is involved in IMPACT and served as rush chairman in 2009, helping the fraternity gain its largest pledge class in more than 10 years.
"It definitely wasn't all my doing, as alumni and brothers helped tremendously in the effort," Hooper said.
Tonsmeire made an impact on those who knew him that hasn't been forgotten.
"His deep-seated qualities of personality, character and leadership were noticeable his freshman year at Auburn, and we know now that these qualities were persistent and enduring throughout his life," said Michael Parker, a pledge brother of Tonsmeire.
A man with an intense love of the outdoors, Tonsmeire and his wife Frannie started Wilderness River Outfitters in 1972.
"He was something of a diamond in the rough," Parker said.
WRO focuses on offering people outdoor adventures in Idaho, Montana and Alaska with seasoned guides.
Tonsmeire's wife Frannie, son Seth and daughter Amy continue to run WRO since Tonsmeire's passing.
Perhaps the image of Tonsmeire that resonates most strongly with those who knew him is that of him rafting through Jarbidge Falls in Idaho in 2006 shortly before his death.
Booth Malone, an artist and Phi Delt alumnus, will present the chapter with an oil painting of Tonsmeire on the river to hang in the chapter room.
"Joe is the first brother I remember from when I was rushing as a freshman," Malone said.
Tonsmeire served as president of the chapter during Malone's freshman year in 1970.
Malone, a 1974 graduate, studied visual art while at Auburn.
He now resides in Columbus, Ga., and works as a professional artist.
"I remember Joe serving as president when we had what we call 'chapter grand' for a brother who passed away in Vietnam," Malone said. "I think it is fitting that we should honor Joe in the same way."
The life of Tonsmeire and the qualities and passions he possessed won't soon be forgotten by the Alabama Beta chapter of Phi Delta Theta.
"It is only right for those of us who knew Joe to remember him as an example of how to live," Parker wrote in a memorial. "It is not our intent to memorialize him with a lifeless edifice of some form; instead, we hope to keep his memory and enthusiasm for life alive with an annual scholarship that gives preference to the recognition of a newly initiated Phi Delta Theta brother who shares some of Joe's qualities of leadership and lifestyle."
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