Profiles in Excellence: In a Time of Desperation, Brotherhood Became Ben Bailey’s Strength
OXFORD, Miss. – When tragedy struck his family hundreds of miles away, Ben Bailey (Mississippi, 2029) knew exactly who he could turn to: his brothers.
“Ben, don’t freak out. Everything is okay.” Those were the first words Bailey heard from his mother, Lisa Bailey, early one morning in the summer of 2026. It was the kind of sentence that immediately told him that everything was not okay. Bailey was spending his summer welcoming hundreds of students to Ole Miss, serving on his university’s Campus Visit and Orientation program. What should have been a summer of fun and exciting opportunities changed in an instant. That dreadful phone call was to inform Bailey of a medical emergency that left his father, Paul Bailey, fully paralyzed on the left side of his body along with a variety of other painful symptoms. Rushed to Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge, his father’s diagnosis soon became clear—doctors had discovered two tumors in his father’s brain. More than 300 miles away in Oxford, Bailey was facing the kind of news no son expects to receive. His immediate reaction was to go home and be with his family, but his mother advised against it, fearing that Bailey might drive recklessly in his panicked state. Instead, he turned to those who became his second family, his brothers in the Pi chapter of Delta Tau Delta.
After collecting himself, Bailey contacted two brothers that he trusted the most: his big brother Carter Matusiak (Mississippi, 2028) and grand-big Jack Turentine (Mississippi, 2027). Matusiak, on the fifth hole of the Ole Miss golf course and Turentine, about to pick up a catering shift for some extra cash that weekend, were outside of Bailey’s home within thirty minutes and together they were at the hospital within five hours. His brothers fed him, drove him, prayed with him, and never left his side. They held his mother’s hand when his father was going through his second craniotomy. They stayed up with his older sister, Emily Bailey, when she was too proud to cry in front of her little brother. Between his surgeries, Bailey’s father told him to thank his friends for being there. Bailey had no problem correcting him: “Dad, they aren’t my friends, they are my brothers.”
In the aftermath of that fateful day, many questions remained for the Bailey family. With medical expenses mounting, his parents unable to work, and Bailey missing significant time from his own job, his family had a great discussion about him continuing to be a Delt. They agreed that the brotherhood was worth every financial sacrifice in the end. For Bailey, the decision was simple – the brotherhood that was there for him at his lowest and most frightening time in his life is the brotherhood he wants to be an active member of.
Now with the semester underway, many difficulties remain and the road to recovery for his father remains long and tedious, however, Bailey still serves as an active member of both his chapter and campus. This semester, he serves as a member of the Delta Tau Delta National Undergraduate Council, in chapter roles, such as honor board, Ritual board, and philanthropy board, as well as a campus ambassador tour guide, ASB senate executive assistant, College of Liberal Arts ambassador, and Catholic campus minister. When recanting his learned experience, Bailey states “I pray that I can stay a member of this brotherhood. My brothers have gotten me this far. I will do whatever I can to remain an active member of Delt. I know what it’s like to rely on a brother in a time of desperation. As long as I am a member of Delt, I will model that.”
