October is a busy month for Founders’ Day celebrations. Seven of the 26 National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) organizations will be a year older before Halloween gets here. While I always try to write a post for the NPC groups on their respective Founders’ Day, I am not sure I will be able to this year. I’m presenting the info here, along with a fun fact off the top of my head, in case this is the only opportunity I have this year to wish them well on another year!
On October 10, 1872, Alpha Phi was founded at Syracuse University in New York. Alpha Phi’s original birthday is September 18, as recorded in the minutes of the November 4, 1872, meeting. However, Founders’ Day is celebrated on October 10. Alpha Phi is the oldest of the Syracuse Triad and it is the first women’s fraternity to build its own home.
The Alpha Phi chapter house on University Avenue in Syracuse. It was the first house built and owned by a women’s fraternity. The house was sold in 1902 and the chapter moved to its current home on Walnut Place.
On October 13, 1870, Kappa Kappa Gamma was founded at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois. Kappa Kappa Gamma and Pi Beta Phi are known as the Monmouth Duo. The amazing thing about the pair is that their Alpha chapters were forced to close by the college authorities and by the 1880s both chapters ceased to exist. Luckily, expansion had taken place and those chapters kept the organizations going despite the loss of the mother chapters.
Photo by Melisse Campbell, a KKG alumna
On October 15, 1885, Alpha Chi Omega was founded at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, home to Kappa Alpha Theta’s Alpha chapter. At first membership in Alpha Chi was limited to music students, and its badge is the lyre.
On October 15, 1898, Zeta Tau Alpha was founded at the Female Normal School (now Longwood University) in Farmville, Virginia. In 1903, Themis was chosen as the patron goddess. It is also the name of the Zeta magazine.
On October 23, 1897, Kappa Delta was founded at the Female Normal School (now Longwood University) in Farmville, Virginia. It is the oldest of the Farmville Four, the sororities founded there. Interestingly, the two Farmville Four members founded in October are the ones which chose to close their Alpha chapters in order to join the National Panhellenic Conference.
White Rose with Larkspur painted by Kappa Delta alumna Georgia O’Keeffe, circa 1927. The white rose is the flower of Kappa Delta.
On October 24, 1902, Delta Zeta was founded at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Today, its headquarters is in Oxford, Ohio. One of my favorite fun facts about Delta Zeta is about founder Julia Bishop Coleman; she was also the first president of the Ohio State Chapter of P.E.O.
On October 24, 1909, Alpha Epsilon Phi was founded at Barnard College in New York City. Its seven founders were Jewish and they created the organization because Jewish women were not typically invited to join the established sororities.
Gertrude Friedlander and her Alpha Epsilon Phi sisters at the University of Pittsburgh
