October 24 is day upon which two NPC groups were founded. Celebrating today are Delta Zeta and Alpha Epsilon Phi.
Delta Zeta was founded at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, on October 24, 1902. Its founders are Alfa Lloyd, Mary Collins, Anna Keen, Julia Bishop,* Mabelle Minton, and Ann Simmons.
Between 1941 and 1962, the members of four other NPC groups became members of Delta Zeta. The organizations with which Delta Zeta has absorbed or merged include Beta Phi Alpha, Theta Upsilon, Phi Omega Pi, and Delta Sigma Epsilon. Prior to these groups becoming a part of Delta Zeta, many had themselves merged with other groups.
The likely most royal of Delta Zeta’s members is Crown Princess Martha of Norway. She along with her lady-in-waiting, Countess Ragni Ostgaard, became members of Delta Zeta after visiting the University of North Dakota. In 1939, the two women were initiated in a ceremony presided over by Myrtle Graeter Malott, National President. Later that year, Bobye Lou Utter and Rena Charnley, members of the Delta Zeta chapter at the University of Pittsburgh, presented corsages to the Crown Princess Martha and the Countess during the royal’s visit to Pittsburgh. In March 1948,a newspaper account noted that the Pittsburgh chapter members were making layettes for Norway, a national Delta Zeta project.
Crown Princess Martha of Norway, Delta Zeta
Alpha Epsilon Phi was founded on October 24, 1909. Seven Barnard College students, Helen Phillips, Ida Beck, Rose Gerstein, Augustina “Tina” Hess, Lee Reiss, Stella Strauss and Rose Salmowitz, came together and created an organization spurred on Phillips’ inspiration. She sought a way to stay in closer contact with her friends; Alpha Epsilon Phi was founded in her room.
The seven shared their Jewish heritage. A second chapter was quickly founded two months later at nearby Hunter College. The founding chapter at Barnard was closed when the college banned Greek-letter organizations in 1913.
Today, Alpha Epsilon Phi notes that the organization is a Jewish sorority, “but not a religious organization, with membership open to all college women, regardless of religion, who honor, respect and appreciate our Jewish identity and are comfortable in a culturally Jewish environment.”
Alpha Epsilon Phi is the only NPC group that can claim a United States Supreme Court Justice among its membership. Ruth Bader Ginsburg became a member of the chapter at Cornell University. Another distinguished alumna is Nancy Goodman Brinker, Founder of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure and a former U.S. ambassador. Brinker was initiated at the University of Illinois.
Ruth Bader (Cornell University yearbook)
*Julia Bishop Coleman was also a P.E.O. and served as first President of P.E.O.’s Ohio State Chapter (the organization of P.E.O. chapters in Ohio and not a chapter at the state university). See http://wp.me/p20I1i-18s.
(c) Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2016. All Rights Reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory/
