From collection Member List
Curtis Shake was initiated into Alpha Chapter, Vincennes University, in 1903. After teaching in a one-room schoolhouse for two years after graduating, he returned to school to pursue a law degree. He received financial assistance from a business owner in return for promising to assist future students in a similar manner.
Shake established a law practice in Indiana while also holding various government positions, including Vincennes city attorney, Knox County attorney, and U.S. commissioner for the Southern Indiana judicial district. In 1937, he was appointed to the Indiana Supreme Court to fill a vacancy and then was elected in his own right in 1938, holding the position until 1945.
In 1947, Shake was appointed presiding judge over the IG Farben Trial, one of 12 trials for Nazi war crimes in Nuremberg, Germany, after World War II, which convicted 13 defendants of knowing participation in Nazi’s “plans for conquest.”
Throughout his lifetime, Shake also continued his involvement with Sigma Pi. He was a member of the first Grand Council (as Grand Fourth Counselor) in 1908, held national office again from 1926–1930 (Grand First Counselor) and 1962–1964 (Grand Second Counselor), and he was instrumental in the reinstallation of Alpha Chapter at Vincennes University. In 1961, he helped persuade Vincennes University to donate the Shadowwood estate to Sigma Pi for use as a national Executive Office.
Shake is one of six men to be named Honorary Grand Sage and was one of the first three recipients of the Founders’ Award, presented at the 1962 Convocation. The Fraternity annually presents the Curtis Shake Scholarship, named in his honor, to the member who excels in legal studies, and he presents the Justice Curtis Shake Province Archon Award to a Province Archon who excelled in their position during the previous biennium.
