ΘΥ, ΒΣΟ, ΦΩΠ, the 1939-41 NPC Executive Committee – Whatever Happened to Them?

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

The 1937 National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) meeting took place at the Beekman Tower (Panhellenic), the New York City hotel built by NPC women, originally for NPC women.* The meeting was chaired by Harriet Williamson Tuft, Beta Phi Alpha. The next session of the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) met at the Greenbrier Hotel in 1939. Violet Young Gentry, Alpha Delta Theta, served as chairman.

After that 26th session of NPC closed, Gentry, as the outgoing NPC Chairman and Alpha Delta Theta’s NPC delegate announced the merger of Alpha Delta Theta and Phi Mu and the dissolution of her organization. Phi Mu officers began initiating Alpha Delta Theta collegians and alumnae. Phi Mu affiliated five chapters and gained eight others through campus mergers. Four Alpha Delta Theta alumnae groups were installed by Phi Mu. In the 18 cities were Phi Mu and Alpha Delta Theta both had alumnae groups, Alpha Delta Theta’s alumnae chapters were disbanded and absorbed  by Phi Mu. Alpha Delta Theta had been a member of NPC for 16 years; it was granted associate NPC membership in 1923 and full membership in 1926. It was founded as Alpha Theta in the fall of 1919 at Transylvania College and it took the name Alpha Delta Theta in 1922. That year, a second chapter was founded at the University of Kentucky. There were 25 chapters established prior to the 1939 merger with Phi Mu.

npc 3 merged

The officers who were installed for the 1939-41 biennium are pictured above: Juelda C. Burnaugh, Beta Sigma Omicron; Beatrice Mullian Moore, Theta Upsilon; and Helen Hambly Cunningham, Phi Omega Pi. None of the five NPC groups which held the chairmanship from the close of the 1935 meeting through 1945 are in existence today. Moore chaired the 1941 meeting, followed by Burnaugh in 1943, and Cunningham in 1945.

Beta Phi Alpha joined NPC in 1923. Beta Phi Alpha was founded as Bide-a-wee on May 8, 1909 at the University of California – Berkeley. A few months later, the name changed to Aldebaran, In 1919, it became Kappa Phi Alpha. It then changed to Beta Phi Alpha. In 1936 chapters of Phi Delta at New York University and George Washington University affiliated with Beta Phi Alpha. On June 22, 1941 was absorbed by Delta Zeta. At that point, 30 chapters had been installed and there were 3,000 members. Beta Phi Alpha’s “Convention Lights” is still sung at the close of Delta Zeta conventions.

Theta Upsilon was granted associate NPC membership in 1923 and full membership in 1928. Theta Upsilon was founded at the University of California – Berkeley in 1914. Its roots can be traced to 1909 when a group of women rented a house on Walnut Street that they called “Walnut Shell.” On January 1, 1914, they organized as the Mekatina (“Among the Hills”) Club. In September 1933, Lambda Omega became a part of Theta Upsilon. On May 6, 1962, Theta Upsilon became a part of Delta Zeta. Three campuses overlapped, that is, they had both a Theta Upsilon and Delta Zeta chapter on campus. These three were Miami University, the University of Illinois, and Temple University. Delta Zeta gained nine new chapters.

Beta Sigma Omicron was granted associate NPC membership in 1930 and full membership in 1933. It was founded in 1888 at the University of Missouri. A second chapter was founded in 1891 at the Synodical College in Fulton, Missouri. The Alpha chapter closed in 1892. More than 14,000 had been initiated since 1888. Although 61 chapters had been established throughout its history, by 1964 when the organization was absorbed by Zeta Tau Alpha, there were only fifteen active chapters. Seven chapters became Zeta Tau Alpha chapters. There were: Howard College (now Samford University); Millsaps College; William Jewell College; Evansville College (now University); Thiel College; Westminster College; and Youngstown State College (now University). Alpha Phi picked up three chapters from those on campuses where there was already a chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha. The three Beta Sigma Omicron chapters that became Alpha Phi chapters were located at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge, Baldwin Wallace College and Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Phi Omega Pi was granted associate NPC membership in 1930 and full membership in 1933. It was founded at the University of Nebraska on March 5, 1910. At the yearly years, membership was limited to those belonging to the Order of the Eastern Star. In 1931, this restriction was eliminated. In 1933, Sigma Phi Beta was amalgamated with Phi Omega Pi. Phi Omega Pi disbanded in 1946. Four chapters were inactive. Other chapters were previously taken over by Alpha Omicron Pi, Alpha Gamma Delta, Sigma Kappa, and Kappa Alpha Theta. Delta Zeta was asked to consider the alumnae and a few chapters that remained. On August 10, 1946, Delta Zeta absorbed Phi Omega Pi.

At the close of the 1945 NPC meeting, Amy Burnham Onken, Pi Beta Phi’s Grand President and NPC Delegate, was installed as chairman and the NPC rotation began anew.

*For more information on the Beekman Tower (Panhellenic) see the post at http://wp.me/P20I1i-1n


 

(c) Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2013. All Rights Reserved.

Posted in Beekman Tower (Panhellenic), Fran Favorite, GLO, Greek-letter Organization, Greek-letter Organization History, National Panhellenic Conference | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on ΘΥ, ΒΣΟ, ΦΩΠ, the 1939-41 NPC Executive Committee – Whatever Happened to Them?

The West Baden Springs Hotel, the “Eighth Wonder of the World” and the Site of Several Fraternity Conventions

Posted on August 26, 2013 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

This past Saturday, August 24, a tweet from Phi Kappa Tau noted that “On this day in 1926, Phi Kappa Tau’s first convention at a resort hotel took place in West Baden, Ind.” In the 1920s, West Baden Springs was one of the country’s finest resort hotels. The Phi Kappa Taus must have enjoyed their stay as the fraternity returned to the hotel in 1928.

The Mile Lick Hotel was built in 1855 and soon became West Baden Springs capitalizing on the hotel’s mineral springs. Owner Lee Sinclair added an opera house, casino, baseball field, and bicycle track. In June 1901, a fire quickly destroyed the hotel.

Sinclair vowed to rebuild. He envisioned a hotel with the world’s largest dome and found an architect, Harrison Albright, who willing to take on the challenge. The hotel reopened in June of 1902 with an atrium 200 feet in diameter. The hotel was dubbed the “Eighth Wonder of the World.”

images

West Baden Springs Hotel

West Baden Springs Hotel

When Sinclair died in 1916, his daughter and son-in-law took over. They renovated and in doing so, encountered financial issues. In 1923, they sold the hotel for $1,000,000.

Beta Theta Pi held its 1922 convention at the hotel. The Story of Beta Theta Pi mentioned that the September “weather was hot at West Baden, but, aside from that, the hotel was ideal for convention purposes. The management provided everything possible to secure the comfort and contentment of the delegates. The spacious hotel office afforded room for many interested groups. The restful atrium, with its colorful effects of old rose and green and the play of the changing lights in the evening, lingered long in memory. The beautiful park outside, the charms of sunken gardens, the gleam of globes of light, the touch of sentiment which nature gave through its fine September moon, all combined to make the week a happy one. There was an abundance of melody as the hours were sped with joyous song. There were the delights of dancing in the center of the great hall as the shifting lights chased the shadows from one side of the room to the other. There were horseback rides and golf for the devotees of those sports. There were healing springs for those who wished to take the waters. The general spirit was excellent, and out from West Baden went forth a strong determination in the minds of the delegates to push Beta Theta Pi still further forward during the new college year.”

An additional insight about the Beta convention was found in a 1922 Caduceus of Kappa Sigma. George E. Allen, a Kappa Sig alumnus, was assistant to the hotel proprietor. The Caduceus noted that the Beta magazine paid this compliment to Brother Allen, “The management was alert and attentive. The entente between Kappa Sigma and Beta Theta Pi was made more cordial by the many courtesies of Mr. Allen.”

The Phi Gamma Delta magazine also reported on the Beta convention, “Beta Theta Pi, we are informed by the magazine of that fraternity, at its recent convention, censured an undergraduate delegate who played golf instead of attending the sessions. Fidelity is the word which best characterizes the attitude of the delegates during the Convention sessions. They kept on the job. As a consequence the business of the Convention was transacted with a minimum of delay. The roll calls showed some chapters unrepresented during the first day. But the fault was not with the delegates. The annulment of many trains owing to the railroad strikes made connections uncertain, occasioned long waits in out-of-the-way junction points and in large cities as well. But they all got to West Baden at length. There was one delegate who played golf when he had accepted railroad fare from the fraternity to help it in its deliberations. He was rightfully censured by the Convention. There was one delegate, a chapter president at that, who disgraced his famous old chapter through the assistance of a boot-legger. He lost his chance of influence in the Convention. But these two flagrant failings to get the vision only emphasized the fidelity of the other seventy nine.”

Kappa Alpha Theta’s 1924 Grand Convention was held at the hotel. The location is about 100 miles from Theta’s founding site, DePauw University. From December 28-31, 1927, 355 Phi Gamma Deltas gathered at the resort for the fraternity’s Ekklesia.

The stock market crash of 1929 led to the hotel’s demise and it closed in 1932. Two years later, it was sold to the Jesuits for $1. They used the building as a seminary, West Baden College. The Jesuits  removed some of the decorations, including four Moorish towers. In 1964, the seminary closed. In 1966, the property was purchased and donated to Northwood Institute, a private college, for its use; it closed in 1983. The hotel was sold to a real estate developer in 1985. The property was in litigation for years after the developer declared bankruptcy. In the winter of 1991, an exterior wall collapsed due to a build up of ice and water. Indiana Landmarks stabilized the hotel. In 1994, the hotel was sold for $500,000.

In 2007, the West Baden Springs Hotel was returned to its former glory. The restoration of the hotel (and the French Lick Springs Hotel, less than a mile away – the subject of a future post) is due to  dedication and vision of William Alfred “Bill” and Gayle Cook, along with their son Carl, of the COOK Group, headquartered in Bloomington, Indiana, and Indiana Landmarks. Bill Cook, a Beta Theta Pi, was an initiate of the chapter at Northwestern University.

I have always been intrigued by the sites at which fraternity and sorority conventions were held. (Kappa Kappa Gamma’s centennial convention in 1970 took place at the French Lick Springs Hotel, a short walk from the West Baden Springs Hotel). I have already done a post about the New Ocean House in Swampscott, Massachusetts. It is at http://wp.me/p20I1i-xN . I hope to do a few more posts about these grand hotels and convention locales.

© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2013. All Rights Reserved.

Posted in Beta Theta Pi, Conventions, DePauw University, Fran Favorite, Fraternity meetings, GLO, Greek-letter Organization, Greek-letter Organization History, Kappa Alpha Theta, Kappa Sigma, Phi Gamma Delta | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on The West Baden Springs Hotel, the “Eighth Wonder of the World” and the Site of Several Fraternity Conventions

U.S. Vice Presidents Who Belong to Fraternities and Sororities

Posted on August 23, 2013 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

How many U.S. Vice Presidents have been in a fraternity or sorority? A goodly number, it turns out. Here is a list of Vice Presidents since 1869,* when Schuyler Colfax became the first fraternity man to become Vice President. I’ve included all the names from Colfax on, even those who were not fraternity men, or college graduates, for that matter, because these men don’t get much publicity.

And in 2021, the first sorority woman on this list, Kamala Harris, a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., became Vice President.

Grant And Colfax

Schuyler Colfax – Beta Theta Pi (Honorary). The Exchanges section in the April, 1885 Anchora of Delta Gamma noted, “The third article gives us a short sketch of Honorable Schuyler Colfax, who was an honorary member of Beta Theta Pi, but exhibited all of the enthusiasm of an active one.” Another account in the Beta magazine, tells of Colfax, a “whole souled Beta,” lecturing in Evanston, Illinois, on January 17, 1876, accepting an invitation from the University of Chicago Beta chapter to attend a chapter meeting. He did. Mayhem from the other fraternities ensued; they barred the front door. Colfax and the Betas went out the back door where he delivered “an extemporaneous lecture to the mob which, for point and pungency, excelled even his brilliant platform efforts.” The event was captured in the Chicago papers and the offending students made a public apology, spurred on by the college authorities.

Henry Wilson, no affiliation

William A. Wheeler, no affiliation

Chester A. Arthur, Psi Upsilon, Union College, became President

Thomas A. Hendricks, no affiliation. The Rainbow of Delta Tau Delta (October 1885) noted that there were “no fraternities at Hanover until many years after his college days were over.”

Levi P. Morton, no affiliation

Adlai Stevenson I, Phi Delta Theta, Centre College

Garret Hobart, Delta Phi, Rutgers College (now Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)

Theodore Roosevelt, Delta Kappa Epsilon and Alpha Delta Phi, Harvard University, became President

Charles W. Fairbanks, Phi Gamma Delta, Ohio Wesleyan College. He served as Phi Gamma Delta’s Archon President from 1903-05.

James Schoolcraft Sherman, Sigma Phi, Hamilton College

Thomas Riley Marshall, Phi Gamma Delta, Wabash College 

Calvin Coolidge, Phi Gamma Delta, Amherst College, became President

Charles G. Dawes, Delta Upsilon, Marietta College 

Charles Curtis, no affiliation

John Nance Garner, Pi Kappa Alpha, Vanderbilt University

Henry Agard Wallace, Delta Tau Delta, Iowa State University**

Harry S. Truman, Lambda Chi Alpha and Alpha Delta Gamma, honorary member, became President

Alben W. Barkley, Delta Tau Delta, Emory University

Richard Nixon, no affiliation, became President at a later time

Lyndon B. Johnson, no affiliation, became President 

Hubert Humphrey, Phi Delta Chi, University of Minnesota. He was also an honorary member of Alpha Phi Alpha and Chi Delta Mu, a fraternity founded at Howard University for blacks in Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy or Doctors who graduated in these professions; Chi Delta Mu is no longer in existence.

Dr. Charles R. Cephas, Grand President of Chi Delta Mu, pins the fraternity’s badge on senator Hubert H. Humphrey.

Dr. Charles R. Cephas, Grand President of Chi Delta Mu, pins the fraternity’s badge on Senator Hubert H. Humphrey.

Spiro Agnew, no affiliation

Gerald Ford, Delta Kappa Epsilon, University of Michigan, became President

Nelson Rockefeller, Psi Upsilon, Dartmouth College

Walter Mondale, no affiliation 

George H. W. Bush, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Yale University, became President

Dan Quayle, Delta Kappa Epsilon, DePauw University

Al Gore, no affiliation 

Dick Cheney, no affiliation 

Joe Biden, no affiliation 

Michael Pence, Phi Gamma Delta, Hanover College (served as his chapter’s president)

Kamala Harris, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Howard University

The list of Presidents and First Ladies in fraternities and sororities 

* Thomas Jefferson, the nation’s second Vice President and third President was a member of the Flat Hat Club. The Flat Hat Club was founded at the College of William and Mary in 1750.  It is believed to be the precursor of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, which was established at the same institution in 1776. The modern F.H.C. Society was revived at the College of William and Mary in May, 1972. The Flat Hat is also the name of the college’s student newspaper.

** Henry Agard Wallace’s mother was (Carrie) May Brodhead Wallace. She was an early member of the Pi Beta Phi chapter at Iowa State University. Henry A.’s father, Henry Cantwell Wallace, served as Secretary of Agriculture under Calvin Coolidge. When the Pi Phis presented the portrait of Grace Coolidge to the nation, Mrs. Wallace served as the D.C. point person in coordinating the event. 

Grace Coolidge with Secretary of Agriculture Henry Cantwell Wallace. Although the woman on his right side is not identified, I am fairly certain it is his wife, May Brodhead Wallace. (Photo from the Library of Congress site)

Grace Coolidge with Secretary of Agriculture Henry Cantwell Wallace. Although the woman to his right is not identified, I am fairly certain it is his wife, May Brodhead Wallace, from pictures I have seen of the White House event where the portrait of Grace Coolidge was presented to the nation. (Photo from the Library of Congress site)


 

(c)Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2013. All Rights Reserved.

Posted in Alpha Phi Alpha, Beta Theta Pi, Calvin Coolidge, Dartmouth College, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Delta Tau Delta, Delta Upsilon, DePauw University, First Ladies, Fran Favorite, Harvard University, Howard University, Ohio Wesleyan University, Phi Delta Theta, Phi Gamma Delta, Presidents, The Anchora of Delta Gamma, University of Chicago, Yale University | Tagged , , | Comments Off on U.S. Vice Presidents Who Belong to Fraternities and Sororities

Rah, Rah, Sis Boom Bah! The Birth of College Sports and the NCAA

Posted on August 21, 2013 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

A two-mile, eight-oared barge race between two teams in 1852 was the first recorded American intercollegiate competition. Harvard defeated Yale on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire and their athletic rivalry began. The College Rowing Association was founded six years later by Brown, Harvard, Trinity and Yale.

New England was also the site of the first intercollegiate baseball game. Amherst and Williams met on the diamond in 1859, five years before either Yale or Harvard had a baseball team.

Princeton and Rutgers have the distinction of playing the first intercollegiate football game.  The game they played on November 6, 1869, resembled soccer and rugby more than modern-day football. The desire to standardize football rules led Princeton to invite Harvard, Yale, and Columbia to form the Intercollegiate Football Association [IFA] in 1876. The IFA, the first forerunner of the National Collegiate Athletic Association [NCAA], was in existence until 1894.

The IFA provided a forum for the discussion of the sport’s techniques and regulations. And although IFA membership increased, discord between the IFA members was common. Moreover, despite the discussions and quest for standardization, football became a brutal, dangerous, and deadly sport.

By 1905, debilitating injuries and deaths were occurring with alarming frequency.  During the particularly gruesome season in the fall of 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt invited representatives from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton to the White House. He spoke to them about the brutality and the effect it had upon the sport’s credibility. Little action resulted from the meeting.

The impetus for reform was the death of 19-year-old Harold Moore, Union College’s star quarterback, in a game against New York University on November 25, 1905. Unfortunately, Moore’s was but one of the 18 deaths that season. In addition, 159 were seriously injured. Henry L. MacCraken, NYU’s chancellor, was dismayed by Moore’s death and he wired Charles Eliot, Harvard’s president, and implored him to organize a meeting of college presidents to reform or abolish football. Eliot politely declined. Two representatives from Harvard, Roosevelt’s alma mater, were invited to a second meeting with President Roosevelt. Despite the President’s influence, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton did little to lead the way for reform.

1911-12 football team1911-12 College Football Team

MacCracken was more successful. He invited 19 collegiate representatives to a meeting at New York’s Murray Hill Hotel. Representatives from 13 institutions attended the December 8, 1905 meeting. After heated debate about abolishing football, a majority voted to retain, yet reform, football, but little was accomplished. A second meeting took place on December 28, 1905 and all major academic institutions playing intercollegiate football were invited. Sixty-two institutions sent representatives; together they formed the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States [IAAUS].  Palmer Pierce of West Point was elected its first president. Notably absent from this meeting were representatives from Yale, Harvard, Princeton, University of Chicago, Cornell, University of Pennsylvania and the United States Naval Academy.

The IAAUS had neither legislative nor executive powers; its role was seen as an educational one. In December 1910, at the fifth annual convention of IAAUS, the organization’s name was changed to the National Collegiate Athletic Association [NCAA]. During the early years, the NCAA’s focus was on standardizing game rules and educating game officials. Any legislation enacted by the organization was subject to a “home-rule” principle.

A 1911-12 college footbal team place on what apears to be ice. The fogginess of the sky is only the discloration of the print and not a weather phenomenon.

A 1911-12 college football team played on what appears to be rainwater ot ice. The fogginess of the sky is only the discoloration of the print and not a weather phenomenon. The photos are from a college co-ed’s scrapbook.

The Football Rules Committee was established early in the history of IAAUS and it met with moderate success. This success indicated to the IAAUS/NCAA members that perhaps the rules for other sports could be standardized. In 1908, a rules committee for basketball was formed. Committees to standardize the rules for track and field (1910), soccer (1911), swimming (1913), wrestling (1917), volleyball (1918), boxing (1919), ice hockey (1923), gymnastics (1927), baseball (1928), lacrosse (1929), fencing (1932), golf (1935), and tennis (1937) followed.

REFERENCES

Bailey, W. S. & Littleton, T. D. (1991). Athletics and academe: An anatomy of abuses and a prescription for reform. New York: American Council on Education & Macmillan Publishing Company.

Bucher, C. A. & Dupee, R. K., Jr. (1965). Athletics in schools and colleges. New York: The Center for Applied Research in Education, Inc.

Guttman, A. (1991). The anomaly of intercollegiate sports. In Andre, J. & D. N. James. Foundations: History and philosophy of sport. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Knight Foundation, Inc. (1993). A new beginning for a new century: Intercollegiate athletics in the United States: A final report. Akron, OH: Author.

Lawrence, P. R. (1987). Unsportsmanlike conduct: The National Collegiate Athletic Association and the business of college football. New York: Praeger Publishers.

Yaeger, D. (1991). Undue process: NCAA’s injustice for all. Champaign, IL: Sagamore Publishing Company.

 (c) Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2013. All Rights Reserved.

Posted in Amherst College, Brown University, College Athletics, Dartmouth College, Fran Favorite, Harvard University, Yale University | Tagged , | Comments Off on Rah, Rah, Sis Boom Bah! The Birth of College Sports and the NCAA

Founders Who Were Sisters First and Then Became Sorority Sisters

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Sisters, Sisters! Six of the 26 National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) women’s fraternities/sororities have a pair of real sisters among their founders.

Marguerite and Estelle Shepard were students at Syracuse University when they helped found Alpha Gamma Delta. The sisters were the ones who planted the seed for the formation of a new women’s fraternity on the Syracuse campus. They talked the idea over with a professor,  Dr. Wellesley P. Coddington, recruited their friends, and founded Alpha Gamma Delta on May 30, 1904.

Helene and Adriance Rice were enrolled at Michigan State Normal College (now Eastern Michigan University) when they got together with six friends and created Alpha Sigma Tau on November 4, 1899. They and two other Alpha Sigma Tau founders roomed in the home of Mrs. Depew.

Frances and Almira Cheney were students at Lombard College in Galesburg, Illinois when they became founders of Alpha Xi Delta on April 17, 1893. Almira became an ordained minister in the Universalist Church. Frances left Lombard and graduated from Ryder Divinity School in 1895. When Frances died in 1901, she was serving as a rural pastor. Theirs were not conventional careers for women in the 1890s.

Phi Sigma Sigma’s founders include Ethel and Lillian Gordon. Only one organization, Theta Phi Alpha, has two sets of sisters among the founders – May and Camilla Ryan, and Katrina and Dorothy Caughey.

Clara and Emma Brownlee, along with ten friends, founded Pi Beta Phi at the home of Jacob Holt on First Avenue in Monmouth, Illinois, on April 28, 1867. Emma was the organization’s first president and Pi Beta Phi’s coat of arms is based on the Brownlee’s family’s coat of arms.

SM-4944

The Brownlee Family Coat of Arms (Above) and the Pi Beta Phi Coat of Arms (below)

The Brownlee Family Coat of Arms (Above) and the Pi Beta Phi Coat of Arms (below)

© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2013. All Rights Reserved.


 

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Recruitment, OK! New Members, OK! Where? Oklahoma, OK!!

Posted on August 16, 2013 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

The University of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma State University Panhellenic Associations have completed sorority recruitment. Congratulations to the new members of these organizations. Enjoy  your time as a collegiate member and cherish the fact that membership is for a lifetime. To celebrate this event, here are the covers from two vintage rush guides from these campuses.

Both the University of Oklahoma in Norman and Oklahoma State University in Stillwater were founded in 1890, 17 years before Oklahoma became a state in 1907. 

In 1909, Kappa Alpha Theta and Delta Delta Delta chartered chapters at the University of Oklahoma. By 1920, there were 10 National Panhellenic Conference organizations on campus. 

rushee tips 1943 crop

OSU began as Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College. It became Oklahoma State University in 1957. In 1919, Kappa Alpha Theta, Kappa Delta, and Pi Beta Phi all founded chapters there. Lambda Chi Alpha was the only national men’s fraternity on campus in 1919.

ok rushees handbook

The women to whom these rush guides belonged were in college during the war years. Their college careers were turned upside down. Most males of college age were in the armed forces. Men’s fraternity life came to a halt during those years. Rationing of food, gasoline, and material goods became a part of daily life. There was angst and worry about the world situation and loved ones serving in the military. There was no instant communication as we have today (cell phones, e-mail, skype, etc.); waiting for the mailman to bring word from a loved one across the world added extra stress to one’s college career. If you know women who were in college during World War II, ask them what campus life was like. Chances are it was light years away from what the young women who have joined sororities in Oklahoma (and elsewhere) are experiencing today.


 

(c) Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2013. All Rights Reserved.

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Q. “Which Is the Best Fraternity? A. “And There You Are!”

Posted on August 14, 2013 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

The academic year is gearing up on campuses all across the country. For some, it means that fraternity and sorority recruitment time is near. Best wishes to the young men and women making decisions as to which organization they will join.

Students have been making those same decisions for almost two centuries. The world was a much different place in 1922, when the following paragraphs were written. Only a handful of college students had access to an automobile (and if they did, it was black, the only color available), few had grown up having their own room and their own bathroom. There were no portable phones, televisions, and the things that today’s college students consider necessities. And yet, the sentiments expressed by George Banta* in the July, 1922 issue of Banta’s Greek Exchange ring as true today as they did then.

“One of the questions most frequently asked of us is as to which is the best fraternity. This most naive question is most often propounded to us by non-fraternity folks who are debating the choice of a fraternity. Rushing season also brings us such inquiries and these latter often take the form of asking us to decide definitely between two different fraternities or sororities. It is no uncommon thing in the autumn for us to receive telegrams which have manifestly found their inspiration in the fierce rushing on the campus.

“It is not merely a question of the impropriety of our undertaking to decide such questions. Any opinion that the editor might harbor would be only his personal opinion. We have long ago learned that choice of a fraternity is a state of mind. There are those to whom the question of size is important; another prefers limitations and exclusiveness; one prefers that which is ancient; another that which is new and plastic and gives opportunity for individual activity, and, it may be for a fight. So, there is with us a great deal bigger reason for not trying to make such distinctions than mere impropriety. It is simply impossible. We do not know which is the best, and we have long ago come to doubt whether there is any ‘best.’ We feel that we might as well undertake to decide between the relative value to the community of the two neighbors who live beside us, one to the north and one to the south. We ourselves prefer our own family simply because it is our own. And we find that each of our two neighbors prefers his family for exactly the same reason. And there you are.”

banta sugnature

*George Banta was a Phi Delta Theta and a Delta Gamma and he is credited with bringing Delta Gamma to the northern states. He was also a wonderful proponent of fraternity life. For more information about him, see http://wp.me/p20I1i-AS


 

© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2013. All Rights Reserved.

Posted in Fran Favorite, George Banta, GLO, Greek-letter Organization, Greek-letter Organization History, Women's Fraternity History | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Q. “Which Is the Best Fraternity? A. “And There You Are!”

Women’s Fraternities, Sororities, and Dr. Frank Smalley

Posted on August 12, 2013 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.
Frank Smalley

Frank Smalley

“Why are some National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) groups women’s fraternities and some are sororities?” is a question I am often asked. It’s a tough one because the 26 NPC organizations are typically referred to as sororities in everyday conversation (i.e. sorority recruitment, office of fraternity and sorority life, etc.).

Credit for this dilemma is given to one man, Dr. Frank Smalley, a professor at Syracuse University. Gamma Phi Beta was founded at Syracuse in 1874. Eight years later, Gamma Phi Beta’s second chapter was founded at the University of Michigan. After the chapter was installed and the two delegates returned to Syracuse, an announcement about the new chapter appeared in the newspaper. On the following day, Smalley made his now-famous comment, “I presume that you young women are now members of a sorority,” thereby coining the word and bringing it into modern usage.*

In the October 1912 Crescent of Gamma Phi Beta, Smalley explained his use of the word, “It appears to me that the use of the word ‘sorority’ to indicate a college Greek-letter society of young women needs no defense.  It is to some extent a question of taste. The word ‘fraternity’ when used of such a society seems a little forced, although the comprehensive use of masculine terms to include women, sometimes justifies it. However, when we have a Latin form sororities, which is specific and exact, why should not the English form ‘sorority’ be used with the same exactness as we observe in the ordinary use of the pronouns he and she?” The roots of the word “fraternity” are in “phratia,” the Greek word meaning people who hold a common interest as well as the Latin word “fraternitas.”

On October 13, 1884, Smalley’s sister, Honta Smalley (Bredin), became a member of the Beta chapter; in 1888, she helped found its Epsilon chapter at Northwestern University and served as Gamma Phi’s first national president. Smalley’s daughter, Carrie Elizabeth, Syracuse University class of 1903, was a member of Gamma Phi Beta Sorority’s Alpha chapter.

Of the 26 NPC organizations, more than half are officially a women’s fraternity or a fraternity for women. Those officially a sorority are: Alpha Delta Pi; Alpha Epsilon Phi; Alpha Sigma Alpha; Alpha Sigma Tau; Delta Phi Epsilon; Delta Zeta; Gamma Phi Beta; Kappa Delta; Sigma Delta Tau; Sigma Kappa; and Sigma Sigma Sigma.

*Sir Thomas More (Saint Thomas More to Catholics) used the word “sorority” in the early 16th century, it is not known whether Smalley knew of More’s usage of this word.

(c) Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2013. All Rights Reserved.

 Honta Smalley (Bredin), Frank Smalley's sister, a member of the Beta chapter of Gamma Phi Beta at the University of Michigan

Honta Smalley (Bredin), Frank Smalley’s sister, a member of the Beta chapter of Gamma Phi Beta at the University of Michigan


 

Posted in Alpha Phi, Fran Favorite, Gamma Phi Beta, Greek-letter Organization, Greek-letter Organization History, National Panhellenic Conference, Northwestern University, Syracuse University, The Crescent of Gamma Phi Beta, University of Michigan | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Women’s Fraternities, Sororities, and Dr. Frank Smalley

“Baconian Biliteral Cipher, on the Estate of Colonel Fabyan,” National Security, and Elizebeth Smith Friedman

Posted on August 9, 2013 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

“Elizebeth Smith, ’15, and Wm. F. Friedman, Cornell, ’13. May 21, (1917). At home.
Riverbank, Geneva, Ill.. where both are engaged on the Baconian Biliteral
Cipher, on the estate of Colonel Fabyan,” is the notice of the marriage of a Hillsdale College Pi Beta Phi member. It appeared in the December 1917 Arrow of Pi Beta Phi.

Elizebeth Smith Friedman and her husband William

Elizebeth Smith Friedman and her husband William

The “Baconian Biliteral Cipher, on the estate of Colonel Fabyan” sets my mind buzzing! Elizebeth, became a member of Pi Beta Phi’s Michigan Alpha chapter as a junior, when she transferred to Hillsdale from Wooster College. She must have been an exceptional student, for the chapter letter which appears in the December 1914 Arrow mentions her by name, “We are so happy in having Elizebeth Smith really, truly one of us. She was pledged last year and initiated October 10.”  It was later noted that she was literary editor of the Collegian, in addition to winning second prize in oratory, and being on the commencement program.

Luckily, my friend Penny Proctor, a Hillsdale College Pi Beta Phi alumna, edited a history of her chapter for the 125th anniversary last year. What follows is the entry she wrote about Elizebeth Smith Friedman. (It should also be noted that Penny is an outstanding Hillsdale alumna in her own right; she won the International Amy Burnham Onken Award when she was a senior at Hillsdale). Thanks, Penny for sharing your research!

The National Security Agency and other intelligence-gathering branches of government have been getting a lot of attention lately. That, and the approaching anniversary of her birth (August 26, 1892) make this a perfect time to remember the contributions of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, a Pi Beta Phi, to the creation of the NSA.

Elizebeth – who insisted on that spelling of her name to avoid the nickname “Eliza” – joined Pi Beta Phi while a student at Hillsdale College. After graduation in 1915, she accepted a position with Riverbank Laboratories in Chicago for the purpose of researching the bilateral codes of Francis Bacon in the works of William Shakespeare; the project was intended to prove or disprove, once and for all, the myth that Shakespeare and Bacon were one and the same. While there, she met fellow researcher William Friedman, and they married in May, 1917. Work on the Shakespeare project stopped just before the United States entered World War I, when the federal government asked Riverbank to loan out the services of William and Elizebeth to work on cryptography for the War Department and the Justice Department.

They almost immediately became involved in breaking a ring of spies working for Germany while living in the United States. Their plan was to foment revolution in India (still a British possession) and thus distract the United Kingdom from the fighting in Europe. The spies used a code in which numbers related to the page, line and word in a very specific book – and William and Elizebeth correctly deciphered 95% of the messages without having the book in their possession. Elizebeth is also credited with training new cryptanalysts in the newly formed Signal Intelligence Service, the first military department devoted to code breaking.

In 1920, the Friedmans moved to Washington, D.C. where they each accepted positions with different branches of the government. Elizebeth’s projects focused on the increasingly sophisticated communication codes used by bootleggers and smugglers who brought illicit liquor into the county. The smugglers sometimes used multiple types of codes in the same message. Elizebeth not only had great success in breaking these codes, but testified in over 30 trials. Her reputation as an expert witness who spoke with clarity and confidence was so great that at one trial, seven defense lawyers rose as one to object when she was announced as a witness.

In 1934, she helped avert a potential international incident in a smuggling case involving a smuggler’s boat that was sunk by the Coast Guard even thought it was flying a Canadian flag. By decrypting the ship’s communications, Elizebeth was able to prove that, regardless of the flag, the ship was under the exclusive control and management of U.S. citizens for illegal purposes. This effectively resolved the jurisdictional dispute and defused the increasing tension with the Canadian government.

The Canadians were so impressed by her work that in 1937 they asked for her help in the prosecution of an opium smuggling gang in Vancouver. It took only six days for Elizebeth to successfully decipher a code based on the Chinese language, despite the fact that she neither read nor spoke Chinese.

During World War II, Elizebeth gained fame for her pivotal role in unmasking an American feeding information on Navy ship movements to the Japanese. Velvalee Dickinson, known as “the Doll Woman” because she used her doll shop as a vehicle for transmitting data, was convicted of espionage based on Elizebeth’s deciphering of her coded messages. She was also part of the team that broke the famed “Purple” code used by the Japanese.

After the War, Elizebeth worked for the International Monetary Fund, creating communication security systems. She and William also finally completed and published their analysis of the Baconian Bilateral Cipher, concluding definitively that Bacon did not write Shakespeare’s plays. A reviewer in the Chicago Tribune praised it for its “graceful, uncomplicated style and …surprise charges of needle-sharp wit,” adding, “the book is a monument of sanity in a field of scholarship noted mainly for its inscrutability.”

In 1999, William and Elizebeth were among the inaugural honorees named to the “Cryptologic Hall of Honor” at the National Security Agency. (His career was even more distinguished in the field.) In 2002, the NSA named its new OPS1 building the “William and Elizebeth Friedman Building.”

She was fond of telling her staff, “We don’t make them [codes], we break them.” She and William are buried together in Arlington National Cemetery. Their joint headstone bears the inscription, “Knowledge is Power.”

 

Sources

Website: “Women in American Cryptology: Creating the Legacy – Elizebeth Smith Friedman” http://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic_heritage/women/honorees/friedman.shtml

Website: “NSA Cryptology Hall of Honor 1999 Inductee Elizebeth Smith Friedman” http://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic_heritage/hall_of_honor/1999/friedman_e.shtml

“Enormous Amount of Research by Hillsdale Alumni Went Into Book,” The Hillsdale Alumni Magazine, April 1, 1958, p. 5.

Class News, The Hillsdale Alumni Magazine, June 1, 1956 p. 25.

Class News, The Hillsdale Alumnus Magazine, May 1, 1938, p. 64.

Joyner, David. “Elizebeth Smith Friedman – Up to 1934” Online paper dated 07/30/2013 http://www.wdjoyner.com/papers/elizebeth-friedman_early-crypto-work3.pdf


 

(C) Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2013. All Rights Reserved.

Posted in Cornell University, Fran Favorite, GLO, Greek-letter Organization, Greek-letter Organization History, Hillsdale College, Notable Fraternity Women, Pi Beta Phi, The Arrow of Pi Beta Phi | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on “Baconian Biliteral Cipher, on the Estate of Colonel Fabyan,” National Security, and Elizebeth Smith Friedman

1839 – on the Eighth Day of the Eighth Month at Nine in the Evening – Happy 174th Birthday, Beta Theta Pi!

Posted on August 8, 2013 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

August 13, 1839, was Commencement Day at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Five days earlier, on August 8, at the first official meeting, eight young men established Beta Theta Pi, the first men’s fraternity founded west of the Allegheny Mountains. The men, “of ever honored memory” were John Reily Knox, Michael Clarkson Ryan, David Linton, Samuel Taylor Marshall, James George Smith, Charles Henry Hardin, John Holt Duncan, and Thomas Boston Gordon. The first three were members of the Class of 1839. 

Miami University was founded in 1809 but it was 1826 before it conferred its first baccalaureate degree. From 1826 through 1839, there were 222 graduates, they were all male, as Miami was not yet coeducational.

The Beta Theta Pi chapter became inactive in January of 1848 due to the “Snowball Rebellion.” It was the goal of Erasmus D. McMaster, Miami’s president, to rid the institution of the fraternities and a decree came down from the university banning them from the institution. The students rebelled. It snowed heavily, as it often does in Ohio in winter. To protest his decision, the main entrance was blocked off and a dozen or more huge snowballs found their way to the first floor of Old Main. McMaster was livid! He was determined to expel the men involved. The second chapter of Alpha Delta Phi had been founded at Miami in 1833. At the time of McMaster’s edict, they were the only two national groups on campus.

On the following evening, the rebellion continued. Doors were nailed shut, and Old Main was filled with snow. McMaster cancelled classes for a week and began disciplinary proceedings. All but nine seniors and five juniors were expelled from the University. 

Three of the men were admitted to Centre College in Kentucky and founded the Epsilon chapter. That spring, the two remaining members left. The Alpha chapter did not come back to life until 1855. Miami University’s decision to fire McMaster due to the loss in critical revenue resulted in a change of course for the institution regarding Greek-letter organizations. The story of Miami University’s role in the history of the fraternity movement is a rich one, but it will have to wait until another day. Happy Birthday to the first of the Miami Triad!

 Scan0003

I love this map and it relates to Beta’s founding.This is what the country looked like in 1839 when Beta was founded. It’s from a copy of the Son of the Stars:A Manual for Pledges of Beta Theta Pi, by G. Herbert Smith, President of the Fraternity, 1947. The top legend states “The Fraternities in 1839” and the bottom one reads “the United States and Territories in 1839 when Beta Theta Pi was established showing the colleges with fraternity chapters.”

(c) Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com. 2013. All Rights Reserved.

Posted in Beta Theta Pi, Founders' Day, Fran Favorite, GLO, Greek-letter Organization, Greek-letter Organization History, Miami University | Tagged , , | Comments Off on 1839 – on the Eighth Day of the Eighth Month at Nine in the Evening – Happy 174th Birthday, Beta Theta Pi!