Fraternity History & More

Monday Morning Musings – GLO Style

Posted on April 6, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

A Pi Phi friend sent me an e-mail this morning telling me that she just read that Ann Turner Cook, the Southern Methodist Pi Beta Phi, whose face became the “the face that launched a billion spoons,” was the subject of today’s aol.com news (http://on.aol.com/video/the-gerber-baby–all-grown-up-and-almost-90-years-old-518748443) . When she was a small child, a charcoal sketch of Cook appeared on Gerber Baby Food products. The sketch was done by Dorothy Hope Smith who had been a neighbor of the Turner family when they lived in Connecticut.

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If you haven’t taken a look at the iamafraternityman.org, please do so.

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Happy Founders’ Day to Kappa Delta Chi Sorority. It was founded on April 6, 1987 at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. The sorority’s website tells the story, “In 1987 four young women from the Rio Grande Valley had a vision while attending Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX. Their vision was to create something so special and unique that it would leave a legacy for others who followed. They recognized the need to unify and promote leadership amongst Hispanic women at the university. That vision became Kappa Delta Chi. The Founders are Cynthia Garza-Fleitman, Nellie Flores-Ledesma, Irene Montoya and Melissa Montoya. With the strong foundations of service, Christianity and friendship, they created a sisterhood that 20 years later is stronger than ever. They sought to incorporate the principles of Unity, Honesty, Integrity, and Leadership into this organization.” Today, there are more than 50 active chapters and several colonies. The sorority is a member of the National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations (NALFO)

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In mentioning Texas Tech, I realize I have been remiss in not acknowledging the passing of Pi Beta Phi’s former Grand President, Beth van Maanen Beatty. She became a member of the Pi Beta Phi chapter shortly after the local organization Ko-Shari became the Texas Gamma chapter of Pi Beta Phi. Beth became President of the chapter and the chapter became the top Pi Phi chapter and was awarded the Balfour Cup. I served under Beth when she was Grand Vice President of Collegians and I was a Collegiate Province President. She was a wonderful person and a Pi Phi extraordinaire. She will be missed and my heart breaks for her husband, two Pi Phi daughters and her precious grandchildren.

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The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Report on the Rolling Stone University of Virginia rape allegation story was released and it offers a scathing review of the lack of due diligence on the part of the Rolling Stone’s writers, editors, fact checkers, et al. It was a “journalistic failure” all around, according to the report. I can’t help but wonder if that is due to the fact that it supposedly involved a fraternity. When the story was published, the entire system was indicted without due process, and all activities were halted by edict of the University of Virginia administration.

© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2015. 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/

Posted in Fran Favorite | Tagged Ann Turner Cook, Beth van Maanen Beatty, iamafraternityman.org, Kappa Delta Chi, Pi Beta Phi, University of Virginia | Comments Off

On Chi Omega’s Founding Day – A Chautauqua Grounds Convention

Posted on April 5, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Chi Omega was founded on April 5, 1895 at the University of Arkansas. Ina May Boles, Jean Vincenheller, Jobelle Holcombe, and Alice Simonds, with guidance from Fayetteville dentist, Dr. Charles Richardson, a Kappa Sigma, created the organization. Dr. Richardson was known as “Sis Doc” to generations of Psi Chapter members (the founding chapter at Arkansas is known as the Psi Chapter) and he is counted as a founder. He crafted Chi Omega’s first badge out of dental gold.

Photo courtesy of the Student Life and Culture Archives, University of Illinos

Photo courtesy of the Student Life and Culture Archives, University of Illinois.

The Eighth Biennial Convention of Chi Omega took place in Boulder, Colorado from June 20-27, 1914. Room and board would not exceed $2.50 per day, according to the pre-convention information. It was a camping convention; Chi Omega’s first camping convention. Attendees were warned, “See to it that your wardrobe is in harmony with it.”

The schedule of events:

This is what automobiles looked like in 1914. The automobile trip to Estes Park would likely have been in automobiles looking like this.

Convention attendees, 1914 (Courtesy of SLCA)

The banquet menu:

Opened in 1898, the Colorado Chautauqua where the Chi Omegas met that summer of 1914 is now one of only 25 National Historic Landmarks in the state of Colorado and one of the few remaining chautauquas in the U.S. Chi Omegas can go visit the site of the 1914 convention and reflect upon what it would have been like for those collegians gathering from all corners of the U.S. in that summer more than a century ago.

Auditorium at the Colorado Chautuaqua in Boulder.

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Posted in Chi Omega, Fran Favorite | Tagged Boulder, Chautuaqua Convention, Chi Omega, Founders' Day, Lambda Sigma Upsilon | Comments Off

Sigma Lambda Beta, Delta Tau Lambda, and Alpha Sigma Rho

Posted on April 4, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Sigma Lambda Beta International Fraternity founded at the University of Iowa. During the start of 1985-86 academic year, Baltazar Mendoza-Madrigal thought about establishing a Latino-based fraternity and started to research the possibility. A meeting held on March 7, 1986. The plans for the organization were finalized on April 4, 1986.

Today, the fraternity is represented on more than 100 college campuses in 29 states. 1992 was an important year for the fraternity. It was the first Latino-based fraternity at an historically black institution, Prairie View A&M University. It reached from coast to coast when chapters were established at California State University-Dominquez Hills and SUNY-Stony Brook on Long Island. That same year, Sigma Lambda Beta joined the North-American Interfraternity Conference.

Sigma Beta Lambda’s website includes moving tributes to members who are now part of Omega chapter. One of those brothers, Victor Correa Ortiz, inspired the creation of the Victor Correa CPR Awareness Day efforts. While visiting his parents in Puerto Rico, he drowned. Bystanders did not know how to administer CPR. Sigma Beta Lambdas are encouraged to become CPR certified and to provide an opportunity for others to be certified through the Victor Correa CPR Awareness Day.

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A Happy Belated Founders’ Day to Delta Tau Lambda and Alpha Sigma Rho, both founded on April 2.

Delta Tau Lambda was founded at the University of Michigan on April 2, 1994 by Darilís García and Maria Victoria Ramos. It is a Latina-based sorority with ten collegiate and six alumnae chapters.

Alpha Sigma Rho, an Asian interest sorority, was founded at the University of Georgia on April 2, 1998. Its founders are Irene Chien, Young Jeon, Juliette Taylor, Jessica Yoo, Suzanne Yoo, Jasmine Yu, Sandra Chu, Debbie Kwon, Angela Lu, Lynn Nguyen, Anne See, and Anna Suh. Its colors are white, red, and silver. The calla lily is its flower, the swan its mascot, the opal its gemstone and its symbol is “Nu,” the Chinese symbol for woman.

Posted in Fran Favorite | Tagged Alpha Sigma Rho, Delta Tau Lambda, Sigma Lambda Beta | Comments Off

Who Was Thomas Arkle Clark, Dean of Men?

Posted on April 2, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

I just spent two days of research in my very favorite place to research, the Student Life and Culture Archives at the University of Illinois. I was on a specific quest, so I didn’t have time to just open books and journals and start reading. But one cannot be in that building without thinking of Thomas Arkle Clark, “T.A.” or “Tommy Arkle,” to his friends.

Clark helped create the field of College Student Personnel when he was named the first Dean of Men. When he entered the University of Illinois as a student in 1886, he was 22, older than the average student. His father died when he was 15 and he was left to support his mother and invalid brother. He had taught school for several winters, as a college degree wasn’t needed at that time to teach school. He hadn’t graduated from high school either, but that, too, was not a deterrent to teach at that time.

Clark graduated in 1890 and earned membership in Phi Beta Kappa. Except for a short stint after graduation teaching in town and graduate study at Harvard, he spent his entire professional life at the University of Illinois. He served as a professor of English from 1893-99.

Thomas Arkle Clark

In 1895, he was head of the Department of Rhetoric. It was then that he helped organize the Gamma Zeta chapter of Alpha Tau Omega at the University of Illinois and, at age 33, he was the chapter’s first initiate. At that point, the fraternity system at the University of Illinois was quite small and young; Delta Tau Delta (1872); Sigma Chi (1881); Kappa Sigma (1891); Phi Kappa Sigma (1892); Phi Delta Theta (1893); Kappa Alpha Theta (1895, with a charter dating to 1875 which had been transferred from the chapter at Illinois Wesleyan College); and Pi Beta Phi (1895).

In 1900, Andrew Draper, the University of Illinois’ President asked Clark to help tame an unruly student, Fred Applegate. His actions warranted dismissal from the university, but Applegate’s father was an “influential supporter of the institution,” according to Kenton Garyas, who wrote about Clark’s life from 1901-17 (Journal of Educational Administration and History, 30(2), 1998).

Clark tried a new tactic, requesting that Applegate inform Clark when a trangression (i.e. drinking, gambling and other tomfoolery) had taken place and the two would discuss it. Applegate became a successful student and an alumnus of the university. According to Garyas, “This requirement of honesty on confessing one’s own transgressions, as well as reporting those of others, would become a trademark of Clark’s modus operandi.”

President Draper began sending other wayward students to Clark and by 1901 he became Dean of Undergraduates and Assistant to the President. In 1904, a change in the University of Illinois presidency brought a change in title, dropping the “Assistant to the President,” yet his duties remained the same. In 1909, he became the Dean of Men.

Clark was one of the first administrators in the nation to hold that title and his success in the position set the standards for Deans of Men and Women at institutions the country over. He also helped develop the modern fraternity system. Fred Turner, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, another life-loyal Illini, started as an assistant to Clark and later became his successor. In 1965, at Alpha Tau Omega’s Centennial celebration, Turner said of Clark and his position as Dean of Men something which Clark had told him upon his death bed, “The real purpose of the office is based on kindness, sympathy, and human understanding of individual needs.”

Clark served as the Dean of Men until 1931. He died in 1932. In addition to his devotion to his office and the University of Illinois, he also served Alpha Tau Omega. He held its highest office, Worthy Grand Chief, in addition to serving on its High Council and as Educational Adviser. In 1923, he founded Phi Eta Sigma, an honorary society to recognize academic excellence among freshmen men.*

One of my all-time favorite magazines is Banta’s Greek Exchange. For 60 years Banta’s Greek Exchange printed information from fraternity and sorority magazines along with feature articles and other items of interest to the Greek world. Sadly, it has not been published since 1973.

This appeared in the September 1922 issue of Banta’s Greek Exchange. It was reprinted from an Alpha Phi Quarterly which had “taken a few liberties with the leading article in The Palm of Alpha Tau Omega by Thomas Arkle Clark which he calls ‘The Best Man in the Chapter.’ Substitute girl for man and it works just as well to our introspection.”

The Alpha Phi commentary noted that “Dr. Clark does not believe that the best man in the chapter is he who is ranked at least close to the best student, has good manners, is well known about the campus, whose morals are unimpeachable, and whose family connections are excellent.” According to Clark, these attributes belonged to the best man in the chapter:

He who is first of all a good student.

He who gives some thought to the work and welfare of the other fellows in the chapter as well as to himself.

He who knows other fraternities and fraternity men and does not always think that their men are inferior to those in his own chapter.

He who is always a man of principle and a man with a backbone whose fraternity ideals must be something more than mere words.

He who is not only loyal to the chapter but loyal to the college who respects its regulations who knows its traditions who respects its good name.

Thomas Arkle Clark (Courtesy of the University of Illinois)

*Maria Leonard, Dean of Women at the University of Illinois from 1923-1945, founded Alpha Lambda Delta in 1924; it was originally an honorary to recognize academic excellence among freshmen women. A year earlier, University of Illinois Dean Thomas Arkle Clark founded its male counterpart, Phi Eta Sigma. In the mid-1970s, both organizations became coeducational. For more information on Maria Leonard, see http://wp.me/p20I1i-y3

Posted in Alpha Phi, Alpha Tau Omega, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, University of Illinois | Tagged Alpha Phi. Fred Turner, Alpha Tau Omega, Banta's Greek Exchange, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Thomas Arkle Clark, University of Illinois | Comments Off

100 Years of Sisterhood – A Centennial Celebration K-State Style!

Posted on March 30, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

I spent the weekend celebrating a wonderful Centennial. Pi Beta Phi’s chapter at Kansas State University turned 100. I would venture to guess that no college woman going through recruitment makes her decision based on an upcoming chapter anniversary. Yet, chapter anniversaries offer collegiate members the opportunity to see that membership really is for more than three or four years. To see women who graduated decades ago, some as far back as the 194os, come back and pick up their conversations as if no time had transpired, is heartwarming. Memories flood back, names and events come back into focus.

The way in which our organizations operate is that we come into it when we are young, as college students, and then we leave with a badge over our hearts and memories galore. We get older and the collegiate members stay the same age, they just come and go. Funny how most of us end up being alumnae/i for a good many years more than we were active members. And at some point there are none of us left from a certain generation, but the organization still moves on. Charter members never, ever make it to the Centennial.

At the Centennial I attended this weekend, the oldest alumna was initiated in 1941. She had eight children and a career as a dietitian. She still plays tennis at a club to which one of my Pi Phi friends belongs. She confided to me that she was not as active in the alumnae club as she would have liked because for most of her life she was working and was also active in an organization called P.E.O. That made me smile and I told her that I, too, was a P.E.O. There was another alumna initiated in 1945, and another in 1947. The one in 1947 started a complete line to the present day. Every year from 1947 was represented!. Women living in 32 states, Washington, D.C. and London, England, made their way back to Manhattan, Kansas, to celebrate the anniversary of their chapter. How amazing is that?

Next weekend, Tri Deltas will return to Manhattan and the same scene will play out in the Tri Delta chapter house. Their badges will be different, but their memories will be similar. Chi Omega and Alpha Delta Pi also celebrate 100 years on the K-State campus this year, and Kappa Kappa Gamma follows next year. A goodly number of GLO chapters were installed in the late 1910s, so Centennial celebrations will be taking place in the upcoming years, as well as other anniversaries – 25, 50, 75, 125, 150. They are testaments to the fact that our organization are meaningful and offer opportunities beyond collegiate life.

It was fun to see Pi Phis I knew and it was terrific to meet women with whom I had exchanged e-mails. Alice Lobenstein, a 1958 initiate, e-mailed me a while back. She asked if the Pi Beta Phi crest had set colors. She explained, “I started a wall plaque crest using mosaic glass a few years after graduating in 1961. Thought I might finally finish for Chapter’s Centennial Celebration in March. Can not find what I used as a model. Colors I had been using were more natural life – light blue background and browns for Eagle body, golds for arrow, IC, eagle’s talon’s and beak. If I was wrong using those colors, I will not continue with the project.” I sent her some pictures, and I encouraged her to finish the project. I told her the design was more important than the colors and I’ve seen the crest done in different colors. How wonderful it was to come up the stairs from the basement and meet Alice right by her creation.

Alice Lobenstein and the mosiac Pi Beta Phi crest she completed in time for the Centennial. The project was started in the 1960s.

At the Saturday luncheon, we were entertained by an a cappella group named Cadence (http://www.cadenceksu.com/#!current-members/c1zdl). Cadence was founded in 1998 and its members like to sing in a variety of styles. One of the Pi Phi chapter members told me that most of the Cadence members belong to fraternities. The group sings at many special chapter events such as Mom’s Weekend.

It was also fun because the chapter has two alumnae currently serving on Pi Beta Phi’s Grand Council, Marla Neelly Wulf and Cindy Rice Svec. They have three daughters between them, and they, too, belong to the K-State chapter and were in attendance. That was a Pi Phi first.

On Thursday, June 3, 1915, the local society Phi Kappa Phi was installed as the Kansas Beta chapter of Pi Beta Phi. The honor society Phi Kappa Phi had only taken on the name Phi Kappa Phi in 1900 and in 1915, Phi Kappa Phi the national honorary continued to struggle to earn a reputation. It was quite likely that not many people in Kansas knew of the organization which began on the east coast at the University of Maine.

Phi Kappa Phi first began to petition Pi Beta Phi in 1911. Petitioning was an art form in the early 1900s. Local organizations wanting to affiliate with a national organization produced expensive and elaborate petition books and sent them to the Grand Council members and each chapter of the organziation. In 1914 and 1915, representatives from the nearest chapters gave their endorsement to the petition of Phi Kappa Phi. The formal endorsement of Grand Council was received March 20, 1915. Phi Kappa Phi then issued its formal petition and received news of the granting of the charter via telegram on May 30.

A letter from Pi Phi’s Grand Treasurer, Anne Stuart, about the chapter’s petition.

Kansas Beta of Pi Beta Phi was installed four days later, on June 3, 1915. An event was planned in four days! It took place at the Carnegie Library and the celebrants had to be out of there by 9 p.m. due to a faculty ruling that no events go later than 9 p.m. on a weeknight. Baked white fish, Saratoga chips and Maryland Chicken were a few of the items on the menu. Neapolitan ice cream and cakes were the dessert. In 1915, making and serving ice cream was no easy task. The Korameier orchestra played. They hired an orchestra on a few days notice. It’s incredible to me how quickly that event came together!

Pi Beta Phi was the second national women’s fraternity to enter Kansas State, Delta Zeta being the first. On short notice, representatives from nine chapters attended. Anne Stuart, Grand Treasurer conducted the installation.

The Manhattan train station. Anne Stuart and several collegians from the University of Nebraksa chapter arrived at this station.

The Manhattan train station. Anne Stuart and several collegians from the University of Nebraska chapter arrived at this station.

The Delta Delta Delta chapter was installed a day or two later. With the Pi Phi and Tri Delta officers in town, a meeting of all national and local organizations was called. On Sunday morning three representatives from each met at the Pi Phi house. The old organization was dissolved, a new one created and Panhellenic problems were discussed. The first time preferential bidding was used at K-State was in the fall of 1926.

Posted in Chi Omega, Delta Zeta, Fran Favorite, Pi Beta Phi | Tagged Cadence, Kansas Beta of Pi Beta Phi, Kansas State University | Comments Off

Happy Founders’ Day Sigma Delta Tau, Especially the Chapter at 1104 West Nevada Street

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

On March 25, 1917, seven female Cornell University students founded Sigma Delta Tau. Their organization was originally called Sigma Delta Phi, but when they discovered the name belonged to another Greek-letter organization they changed the “Phi” to “Tau.”

Sigma Delta Tau’s founders are Dora Bloom (Turteltaub), Inez Dane Ross, Amy Apfel (Tishman), Regene Freund (Cohane), Marian Gerber (Greenberg), Lenore Blanche Rubinow, and Grace Srenco (Grossman).

There was also a male involved in the beginnings of Sigma Delta Tau. Bloom asked Nathan Caleb House to write the ritual. “Brother Nat” is the only man to honored with the organization’s gold membership pin.

Its Kappa chapter was installed at the University of Illinois on March 6, 1926. I walked past the Sigma Delta Tau chapter house at the University of Illinois the last time I was on campus. It’s a beautiful home. An article in a 1927 issue of the Daily Illini gave this account:

Work is in progress for a new $65,000 home for Sigma Delta Tau at 1104 West Nevada Street to be completed February 1. The outside will be a combination of cream colored stucco, stone and brick. The roof is brown shingles, and the architecture Old English. The interior has 20 study rooms, chaperone’s room, upstairs living room, a sunken living room downstairs opening into a large sunken solarium and a library. There will be a secret chapter room in the basement. A cement terrace will open out from the den room in the back to a garden, Three fireplaces will be built into the house, one exceptionally large one in the living room. A.W. Stoolman, Champaign, is the contractor, and Omar and Lilanthol , Chicago are the architects.

I was unable to find out anything about the architects except for the fact that they were mentioned in this article. I think it may have been a misspelling. A.W. Stoolman built many of the fraternity and sorority houses at the University of Illinois. His buildings have stood the test of time.

The city of Urbana website gives this info:

1104 W. Nevada is a Jacobean Greek House that was built in 1926 (likely started in 1926, but completed in 1927). The house is home to the Sigma Delta Tau Sorority. The house is constructed of multi-colored brick with interspersed limestone blocks. The composition of the house is asymmetrical and the main façade is dominated by a steeply pitched cross gable roof inset into a hip roof. The cornice of the roof has exposed wood rafters. A two story rounded bay window protrudes from the main façade. A large brick chimney with limestone details protrudes from the roof. Many of the windows are tall, thin, hinged casement windows. Many of the windows are arranged in horizontal rows. Some of the casement windows have diamond patterned panes of glass held together by lead cames, or grooved strips of lead. Each window is divided by limestone mullions. This unique architectural revival style is used on a very small number of Greek Houses on the University of Illinois campus.

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Happy Founders’ Day to these GLOs, too.

Gamma Phi Delta Christian Fraternity founded March 21, 1988 at the University of Texas.

Sigma Phi Zeta Sorority, founded at Albany University in New York by ten women. It is an Asian interest sorority.

Posted in Cornell University, Fran Favorite, Sigma Delta Tau, University of Illinois, University of Texas, Women's Fraternity History | Tagged A.W. Stoolman, Cornell University, Gamma Phi Delta, Sigma Delta Tau, Sigma Phi Zeta, University of Illinois | Comments Off

From the “Where Do We Go To Get Our Character Back?” File

Posted on March 24, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Yesterday I read John Shertzer’s Fraternal Thoughts blog post titled It’s Not Working. http://fraternalthoughts.blogspot.com/2015/03/its-not-working.html#.VRBJccLdhYo.twitter I have felt the same way at times, more so very recently.

Yesterday, the Charlottesville, Virginia, Police Department issued a statement stating that the allegations of gang rape made by an anonymous woman named “Jackie” against a fraternity at the University of Virginia were unfounded. And that while something might have happened to Jackie that night, it did not take place the fraternity house, nor did it involve any of the men in the fraternity. The facts as presented by Jackie did not match up with the facts presented by the fraternity. Where do those fraternity men go to get their character back? The story is still on the Rolling Stone website with this disclaimer.

We published the article with the firm belief that it was accurate. Given all of these reports, however, we have come to the conclusion that we were mistaken in honoring Jackie’s request to not contact the alleged assaulters to get their account. In trying to be sensitive to the unfair shame and humiliation many women feel after a sexual assault, we made a judgment – the kind of judgment reporters and editors make every day. We should have not made this agreement with Jackie and we should have worked harder to convince her that the truth would have been better served by getting the other side of the story. These mistakes are on Rolling Stone, not on Jackie. We apologize to anyone who was affected by the story and we will continue to investigate the events of that evening.

The Fran Becque translation to Rolling Stone’s disclaimer: There was no need to do due diligence on these facts because we all know that fraternities are evil and the men who join them are the lowest of the low. Of course they are guilty. No need to go research anything.

The defacement of property at the SIUC Phi Kappa Tau house.

This was what I saw on my way to the Rotary meeting this morning. Someone had spray painted this graffiti on corner of the Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity house. Why? I do not know. How unfortunate that there are those among us who take their hatred and rage out on others by defacing property. Frankly, all of my dealings with the Phi Kappa Taus have been pleasant. The chapter is a top fundraiser for the local American Cancer Society Relay for Life. The chapter owns its own home, the only group at SIUC that does. It’s on a main road and the chapter does its best to keep it looking attractive. The men who join know that they have to live to a higher standard than a group of random guys who rent a house on the same street. They have the added obligations and responsibilities of membership.

And while I sometimes, like John Shertzer, question why Greek-letter organization interest me so, I know that the fraternity and sorority experience, when done right, is one of the very best experiences a person can have. Doing it right takes effort. It takes alumni who are committed to the ideals of the organization (not just those who from the Animal House years – and I think every chapter has some of those – who come back and regale the collegians with tales of truth and fiction), a national organization willing to work closely with chapters, and members who understand that being in the organization means living up to higher ideals.

The way our collegiate organizations run means that the lessons need to be taught every year. And while a good foundation can help a chapter along, there is a revolving door of students who come and go. New officers are elected, they figure out what they are doing, they leave office. It starts again. They graduate. More come in.

I haven’t thrown in the towel yet, because the Greek men and women I meet are, by and large, young men and women of whom we can be proud. Are there some bad actors in the bunch? Of course. Bad actors are everywhere, in every part of life. But I am not willing to concede our organizations to the bad actors.

Posted in Fran Favorite, Phi Kappa Psi, Phi Kappa Tau, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, University of Virginia | Tagged Phi Kappa Psi, Phi Kappa Tau, SIUC, University of Virginia | Comments Off

#WHM15 The Amazing Sorority Women Recap

Posted on March 23, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

It’s the last week of March and I’ve yet to acknowledge Women’s History Month. I haven’t had time to put together a new post about amazing sorority women, so I thought I’d quickly get together some links from past blogs. It turned out to be anything but quick. I didn’t realize I had written so much about amazing sorority women. And this isn’t an exhaustive list.of the posts I’ve written about sorority women

The next time anyone says that only ditzy, independently wealthy, blond women join sororities, show them this list.

Ten Authors Who Are Sorority Women (Hint – Caddie Woodlawn, Kinsey Millhone, Atticus Finch, Too), http://wp.me/p20I1i-1wp

Helen Marlowe, Tennis Champion, Zeta Tau Alpha, and Marine Captain, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1HE

“A Hot Pilot is Born” to “Hello Dolly” – a ΘΦΑ Life Well Lived, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1Ha

Ten GLO Authors for Children’s Book Week, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1Cb

Charlotte West (AΞΔ) and Lin Dunn (XΩ) to Enter Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1Ft

Celebrating Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, ΑΕΦ, and Mary Knight Wells Ashcroft, ΓΦΒ!, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1Mj

10 + 2 Sorority Women With Pulitzer Prizes, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1LE

Irvington, Indiana, and the Sad Story of Madge Oberholtzer, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1RY

R.I.P. Jerrie Mock, Phi Mu, the First Woman to Circumnavigate the World Alone, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1RL

Betty Buckley, ZTA, the Public Theater, and Sweeney Todd, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1QR

“Service in Common” on Memorial Day 2014, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1De

The U.S. House of Representatives and the Sorority Women Who Have Served, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1UR

Female U.S. Senators and Their Sorority Affiliation – 2014 Edition, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1UE

Jessie Wallace Hughan, Pacifist, Social Activist, and Alpha Omicron Pi Founder on AOPi’s 118th Birthday, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1Yg

About Dr. Joyce Brothers on Sigma Delta Tau’s Founders’ Day, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1xj

Ten Sorority Women From the Golden Age of Television, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1xM

Ten Amazing Sorority Women, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1sy

Sorority Women Writing Stories Whose Characters Are Sorority Women, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1tc

The Golden Globes and the Fraternity and Sorority Members Who Have Won Them, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1mU

On Sigma Kappa’s Birthday – a Wimbledon Champ Who Was National President, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1dm

For International Women’s Day, Another 10 Amazing NPC Women!, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1vi

Sigma Gamma Rho Founders’ Day and the Hattie McDaniel Cancer Awareness and Health Program, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1dH

11/22/1963 in Dallas – The Three Wives, One a ΔΔΔ, and the Judge, a ΔΓ, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1em

Emmy Awards and the Sorority Women Who Have Won One or More, http://wp.me/p20I1i-17T

Happy Founders’ Day, Kappa Delta and a Snippet about Olga Achtenhagen, the “Hiking Professor”, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1az

Edith Head, Delta Zeta’s 1968 Woman of the Year and Today’s Google Doodle Honoree, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1bI

Nellie A. Brown, Tri Delta and Pioneering Plant Pathologist, http://wp.me/p20I1i-16t

E. Jean Nelson Penfield, KKG, and Carrie Chapman Catt, ΠΒΦ, the Monmouth Duo of Suffragists, http://wp.me/p20I1i-c2

“Baconian Biliteral Cipher, on the Estate of Colonel Fabyon,” National Security, and a Fraternity Woman, http://wp.me/p20I1i-Zy

The Tony Awards and the Sorority Women Who Have Won One, http://wp.me/p20I1i-QP

Miss USA – Sorority Women Who Have Won the Title, http://wp.me/p20I1i-RC

Mary E. Gladwin, R.N., Winner of the Florence Nightingale Medal and a ΔΓ, http://wp.me/p20I1i-Ow

Fraternity Women Who Were Lawyers, 1867-1902 (When Women Could Not Vote!), http://wp.me/p20I1i-KD

Madelyn Pugh Davis, ΚΚΓ, and “I Love Lucy”, http://wp.me/p20I1i-Sl

Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch, Settlement House Founder and Kappa Kappa Gamma, http://wp.me/p20I1i-y2

Sorority Women Who Have Won Oscars at the Academy Awards, http://wp.me/p20I1i-Ez

The 100th Anniversary of the Suffrage Parade, Sorority Women, and a Guest Appearance by High School Student J. Edgar Hoover, http://wp.me/p20I1i-F4

Maria Leonard, Alpha Lambda Delta Founder and Illini Dean of Women, http://wp.me/p20I1i-y3

And There She Is – The List of Miss Americas Who Belong to Sororities, http://wp.me/p20I1i-zK

World War I “Hello Girls” Led by a Gamma Phi Beta, http://wp.me/p20I1i-t6

Doctors Who Wore Badges: Fraternity Women in Medicine 1867-1902, http://wp.me/p20I1i-tF

Jane Marie Bancroft Robinson, Alpha Phi, Active in Deaconess Work, http://wp.me/p20I1i-es

Dr. May Agness Hopkins, Zeta Tau Alpha, http://wp.me/p20I1i-pj

NPC and NPHC Women Astronauts, http://wp.me/p20I1i-le

Anna Botsford Comstock, Mother of Nature Education and a Kappa Alpha Theta, http://wp.me/p20I1i-bP

Katharine L. Sharp, Library Science Pioneer and Kappa Kappa Gamma Grand President, http://wp.me/p20I1i-nq

Ivy Kellerman Reed, Ph.D., Tri Delta, Ardent Esperantist, http://wp.me/p20I1i-dj

Julia Morgan, Architect, Kappa Alpha Theta, http://wp.me/p20I1i-bY

Imogen Cunningham, Pi Phi Pioneering Photographer http://wp.me/p20I1i-eg

Ada Comstock Notestein, Delta Gamma, http://wp.me/p20I1i-bR

Miss Keller, Iron Dean of Westhampton College, and Her Role in AAUW History, http://wp.me/p20I1i-fd http://wp.me/p20I1i-nN

Three female architects who designed chapter houses at Syracuse University, http://wp.me/p20I1i-8B

Alice Duer Miller, Kappa Kappa Gamma, http://wp.me/p20I1i-9C

Carrie Chapman Catt, Pi Beta Phi, http://wp.me/p20I1i-4d

Posted in Alice Duer Miller, Carrie Chapman Catt, Emily Butterfield, Grace Coolidge, Julia Morgan, Notable Fraternity Women | Tagged famous sorority women | Comments Off

Pi Lambda Phi’s Connection to Broadway and More

Posted on March 21, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Today is Pi Lambda Phi’s Founders’ Day. Pi Lambda Phi was founded in 1895 at Yale University by a group of men who were denied membership in the other Yale fraternities because of their religious and racial backgrounds. Frederick Manfred Werner, Louis Samter Levy and Henry Mark Fisher are Pi Lambda Phi’s Founding Fathers. They had a vision of a fraternity “where neither sect nor creed shall ever act as a bar to admission for any man.” According to the Pilam website, “the early history of Pi Lambda Phi can be divided into two periods. The first, known as the Founders’ Period, began with the inception of the fraternity at Yale University in 1895. In a few short years the fraternity grew to a position of enviable promise and achievement only to totter and collapse with equal suddenness.”

In 1908, the second, or Revitalization Period, began modern Pi Lambda Phi history. That is when the Alpha chapter was established at Columbia University. The songwriting team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were members of the Columbia University chapter. They were prolific and we can thank them for the scores of Oklahoma!, Carousel, The King and I, South Pacific, and the Sound of Music, to name a few. I wonder if the duo wrote any songs for Pilam. (Hammerstein was also mentor to musical genius Stephen Sondheim, Beta Theta Pi. See http://wp.me/p20I1i-be).

Richard Rodgers (l) and Oscar Hammerstein II (r) (courtesy of the Rodgers and Hammerstein website)

***

On March 21, 1988, Gamma Phi Delta Christian Fraternity was founded at the University of Texas in Austin. The idea for the fraternity was conceived by Kelvin C. James, Curtis Campbell, Rodney Walker, and Dwight Burns. Along with Luis Lopez, Eric Wilson, David Porter, Derek Riley, Jeffrey Holmes, James Lee, George Floyd, Michael Satterfield, Alex Bird, Bernard Jackson, Ikless Pettit and Melbourne McDonald, they founded the organization. These men are now known as the “Sixteen Visionaries.”

***

Condolences to the family and friends of Lisa Colagrossi, business reporter at ABC News. She was initiated into the Alpha Phi chapter at West Virginia University.

Posted in Alpha Phi, Beta Theta Pi, Columbia University, Pi Lambda Phi, West Virginia University | Tagged Alpha Phi, Columbia University, Gamma Phi Delta, Lisa Colagrossi, Oscar Hammerstein II, Pi Lambda Phi, Richard Rodgers, Yale University | Comments Off

Making Connections at PETS and Congratulations to Bill May!

Posted on March 19, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

This weekend I attended my first Rotary Land of Lincoln PETS. PETS stands for President Elect Training Seminar, It’s Land of Lincoln because it involves 3 Rotary districts, two from Illinois and one from Southern Indiana. Old Abe, who during his lifetime lived in both states, was there in cardboard format only, and he was a bit camera shy.

It was a weekend of connections. At the first event on Saturday, I ended up sitting with a Kappa Alpha Theta. The end of the first session involved some moving around from table to table. A woman joined my table and said “you look familiar, have we met before?” I, too, said she looked familiar, but I told her it was my first Rotary event. Just before we were to move to a different table per the speaker’s instructions, I asked her if she was a P.E.O. Indeed she was. Mystery solved. We had attended P.E.O. Illinois State conventions at the same time.

In another session I sat with a president of a Champaign area club. I told him there was an archives at the University of Illinois where I could live out my days researching. He said he was a Phi Kappa Tau from Kansas State. In telling how he ended up in central Illinois, he mentioned that he had worked for the Syracuse Stage. Turns out I attended at least one of the productions in which he was involved. The show? Vanities, which centers on a trio of sorority women.

One of my favorite quotes from the weekend came from one of the best speakers there, a gentleman from Louisville, Kentucky, who did a session on public relations. He spoke about a visit to one of the Oklahoma Rotary Clubs; its members were so enthusiastic and upbeat that it was “like being at a fraternity rush party.”

During the last session on Sunday I glanced at the school ring worn by one of the men at my table. It had Greek letters on it. Turns out that in addition to serving in his second term as a Rotary Club president, he also serves as a chapter adviser. That conversation led the president of the other Carbondale Rotary club to say that she was a Tri Sigma. We had been talking all weekend and that never came up.

The skills one learns as a member of a Greek-letter organization are easily transferable to service clubs such as Rotary. It’s something I’ve always believed and my experiences this weekend reaffirmed that. (And did I mention that Paul Harris, the founder of Rotary, was a fraternity man. See http://wp.me/p20I1i-22E?)

***

I offer congratulations to Bill May, Executive Director of Arrowmont in Gatlinburg, upon receiving the state of Tennessee’s highest award for artistic achievement. On Tuesday, March 17, he was one of 10 Tennesseans who received the Arts Leadership Award. In addition to being a terrific leader, Bill is a genuinely good guy.

Bill is also a talented stained glass artist, but four years ago, as a member of the Arrowmont Board of Governors, he stepped up and took on the position of Executive Director when the school needed him the most. He put his own work on hold to lead the school through one of the most trying episodes of its history. Bill’s leadership has served Arrowmont well. Arrowmont has come into its own. I am confident that it will continue to flourish as one of the country’s premier arts and craft schools. Classes are open to all levels of skill, including beginners. If you’re in need of a life-changing experience, I highly recommend taking a week-end or longer class at Arrowmont. The catalog is at www.arrowmont.org.

***

On Tuesday morning, there were two Pi Phis on the Today Show at the same time, Savannah Guthrie (University of Arizona ) and Jennifer Garner (Denison). One of my facebook friends said, “Let’s pretend they sang a Pi Phi song after the interview.”

Posted in Denison University, Fran Favorite, Pi Beta Phi, University of Arizona | Tagged Arrowmont, Bill May, Jennifer Garner, Land of Lincoln PETS, Rotary International, Savannah Guthrie | Comments Off

Fraternity History & More

Monday Morning Musings – GLO Style

On Chi Omega’s Founding Day – A Chautauqua Grounds Convention

Happy 35th Founders’ Day to Lambda Sigma Upsilon, founded on April 5, 1979, by 20 men at Rutgers University. It is a Latino oriented fraternity.

Sigma Lambda Beta, Delta Tau Lambda, and Alpha Sigma Rho

Who Was Thomas Arkle Clark, Dean of Men?

100 Years of Sisterhood – A Centennial Celebration K-State Style!

Happy Founders’ Day Sigma Delta Tau, Especially the Chapter at 1104 West Nevada Street

From the “Where Do We Go To Get Our Character Back?” File

#WHM15 The Amazing Sorority Women Recap

Pi Lambda Phi’s Connection to Broadway and More

Making Connections at PETS and Congratulations to Bill May!

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