F. Dudleigh Vernor (August 21, 1892 - April 23, 1974), as an Albion College sophomore in 1911, wrote the music for “The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi.” It has been suggested that the "sweetheart" was not a girl but a boy. In a 1966 interview, Byron D. Stokes said the song was not written about a girl at all, but as a love song to his fraternity. The blue of her eyes and the gold of her hair referred to the fraternity’s colors.

It took Vernor an hour to compose the music after his classmate and fraternity brother, Byron D. Stokes, handed him the lyrics.

Vernor's brother, Richard, formed a music company in 1913 and published 500 copies, which were quickly sold, and the song was on its way to becoming a standard. In 1923, the song was bought by Melrose Music Company which still publishes the song today.

He also co-wrote "The Fellowship Song" with Byron Stokes.

Vernor also wrote “The Girl I Love,” which Norma Shearer sang in the film “Let Us Be Gay,” and composed number of hymns. He also composed "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear," "He Has Risen," "Moods," and "My Road."

He did, not graduate from Albion, dropping out to go to music school in New York. He returned to Albion in 1925 to teach organ and retired in 1958.