Gamma Sigma Fraternity International

Posted on October 11, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Gamma Sigma Fraternity International was founded on October 11, 1869 at the Brockport Normal School (now SUNY Brockport) in Brockport, New York.

It was formed “for the purpose of improving themselves in debate, in original composition and in other literary exercises.” The idea for the organization was brough forth by Professor Charles D. McLean, Principal of the Normal School and 18 young men met in the chemistry to form Gamma Sigma.

The first regular meeting was held a week later and about a month later, Professor McLean became an honorary member on November 6, 1869. He also advanced the group $200 to furnish the room which had been secured for them as a meeting spot on campus. The chapter paid him back by charging admission to their literary entertainments.

On April 11, 1872, the Gamma Sigma Society was incorporated in New Your State. The badge did not make an appearance until 1877.

A long-time reader of this blog asked that I acknowledge this organization, which no longer has active chapters. On October 11, 2019, alumni gathered in Niagara Falls, Canada, for a convocation.

Joseph William Atkinson authored a book on the first 100 years of Gamma Sigma. It is available to read in digital format. The website also has a wealth of information.

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Happy 150th Alpha Phi!

Posted on October 10, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

The first women’s fraternity/sorority to own its own home? It’s the same organization that is the oldest of the Syracuse Triad. The home belonged to the Alpha chapter of that organization. And that organization celebrates Founders’ Day on October 10. Alpha Phi it is!

In September of 1872, Martha Foote (Crowe), Clara Sittser (Williams), and Kate Hogoboom (Gilbert) pondered the thought of women having fraternal organizations comparable to those of the men.  They invited all the college women to discuss the possibility.

Ten women – the original three plus Jane Higham, Clara Bradley (Burdette), Louise Shepherd (Hancock), Florence Chidester (Lukens), Ida Gilbert (Houghton), Elizabeth Grace (Hubbell), and Rena  Michaels (Atchinson) met and pledged allegiance to the sisterhood. Minutes from the first meeting noted that Michaels was chosen president, plans were made for weekly meetings at which literary exercises would be part of the  program, and a 25¢ tax was levied for the purchase of a secretary’s book.  The first debate was “Resolved – that women have their rights.”

At first, the chapter met in the homes of chapter members. Dr. Chidester, Florence’s father, allowed the use of his Irving Avenue home office on Monday evenings. The first chapter room was on Salina Street, over Sager and Grave’s carpet store. The chapter room remained there for six years until it was moved to a suite of rooms on the fourth floor of the Onondaga County Savings Bank Building.

In 1884, the Alpha Phi chapter gave up the meeting rooms it rented in the bank.  Plans were made to rent a house “where the out-of-town girls could live and where one room could be used for a chapter hall.  The experiment proved a success, and at the end of a year it was suggested that the girls build and own a chapter house.”

Jennie Thornburn (Sanford), an 1887 Alpha Phi initiate, recounted the story of Alpha Phi’s chapter house and she gave credit to Grace Latimer (Merrick), for “making practical by figures, by argument and by enthusiasm the possibility of building and owning a house.  At first we thought it a crazy idea; it was certainly novel – no girls had ever owned a chapter house.”

In May of 1886, a 56’ x 178’ lot at 17 University Place was purchased by the members of Alpha Phi for $1,400, or $25 a front foot. A few Alpha Phi fathers acted as a Board of Trustees. A $2,500 bank mortgage was arranged and another Alpha Phi dad loaned the chapter $2,700.  The father of a chapter member was  a building contractor.  He contributed his services and asked the firms with which he dealt to contribute some materials. An eyewitness described the start of the building process, “At 2 P.M. June 22, 1886, on the lot opposite the campus of Syracuse University, which had already been purchased by the Alpha Chapter of Alpha Phi, were held the exercises attending the laying of the corner stone of the first chapter house owned by the society.  Ida Gilbert DeLamater Houghton, ‘76, one of the founders of the organization, struck the gavel upon the unfinished foundation wall.  Carrie Shevelson Benjamin, ‘81, read a paper, at the conclusion of which a song composed by Lydia Thompson ‘83 was sung.  After a short address by Chancellor Sims (an Alpha Phi father), Dr. W. P. Coddington laid the corner stone in the name of the Alpha Chapter of Alpha Phi.  In closing all joined in a familiar college song and the interesting ceremonies were completed.  This was the first chapter house built by women and the day was the fourteenth anniversary of the founding of the Alpha Phi society.”

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.

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.

The chapter moved into its new home in November.  The chapter hall was dedicated in January, 1887, and on Washington’s birthday, the chapter opened the house to 300 invited guests.  In order to pay the mortgages, “it was decided to have the members make an annual subscription to a house fund, each girl giving what she thought she could afford.  This was done, the largest amount given being fifty dollars.” In 1896, the chapter house was redecorated at a cost of $600.  By 1902, the debts had been paid.  It was time to move again.”

As the house became too small, the Bacon residence on Walnut Park, the home of an Alpha Phi family, became available and it was purchased.  The old chapter house was sold to the university for dormitory use. Thirty women could live in the new house.” That home on Walnut Place is the home in which Alpha Phi still resides.

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Hazing Hath No Charms #NPHW22

Posted on September 21, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

This year, National Hazing Prevention Week is September 19-23, 2022. It’s not a coincidence that the week happens when many students are assimilating into Greek-letter organizations. Hazing has no place in any organization, but getting that message out to the rank and file members is not easy, especially if all those members know about an organization is what they’ve seen in the media or in embellished stories from older members.  Membership and chapter culture changes each year, too, adding an extra challenge to it all.

Hazing, according to the definition on HazingPrevention.org, is “any action taken or any situation created intentionally that causes embarrassment, harassment or ridicule and risks emotional and/or physical harm to members of a group or team, whether new or not, regardless of the person’s willingness to participate.”

Hazing is not exclusive to Greek Letter Organizations. Professional sports teams have been known to haze rookies. Colleges and universities once supported class rivalries and potentially dangerous competitions were held between classes. My alma mater, Syracuse University, had its Salt, Cane, Flour, Orange, and Snow Rushes.

College customs were much discussed in the Greek-letter organization magazines of the early 1900s. The December 1905 Delta Upsilon Quarterly contained this report on the Syracuse chapter’s activities, “The Flour rush and Salt rush were held as usual and furnished the same amusement to the spectators and the same exhibition of class spirit as heretofore, the former being won by the freshmen and the latter by the sophomores.”

Salt Rush 1903

Salt Rush, Syracuse University, 1903

 

Gamma Phi Beta’s Alpha Chapter outlined some of Syracuse’s traditions in the November 1906 Crescent of Gamma Phi Beta, “Class distinction is impressed upon the ‘Freshie’ by a flour rush and a salt rush; in the Spring he retorts by an extraordinary ‘parade’ and a moving ceremony, in which the ‘Freshies’ bury their hated green caps which they have been forced to wear all the year.”

According to a chapter report in the January 1911 Alpha Phi Quarterly, “At the beginning of each college year the men have a series of rushes which include the salt rush, flour rush, the football rush, and later the snow rush. Only the underclassmen participate in these and everyone is glad to see the freshmen win as they usually do. The freshmen form at the foot of Crouse Hill, and the sophomores at the top. Then they rush at each other, throwing bags of salt or flour as the case may be, and the sophomores try to prevent the freshmen from reaching the top of the hill. Wrestling matches follow the rushes. The men usually escape with a few cuts and bruises but these, of course, are marks of honor.”

Snow Rush

Snow Rush, Syracuse University

This excerpt from a 1930 Onondagan yearbook gives more details,  “The Flour Rush, which took place on September 28 (1929), was a victory for the freshmen who stormed the Irving Avenue side of Crouse College with bags of flour and completely routed the sophomores with their fire hose. Boxing and Wrestling matches followed. A tie rush was scheduled between the halves of the St. Lawrence game, but this was called because of the mud. The Salt rush which followed soon after was a chance for revenge for the men of ‘32, and they took advantage of it.”

These traditions died out by the early 1940s. Inter-class rushes were not confined to Syracuse; they were part of campus life on many other campuses. Salt Rushes took place at other upstate New York schools including St. Lawrence University and Colgate University. This may have been because, Syracuse supplied much of the country’s salt.  Cane Rushes in which freshmen and sophomores sparred over possession of a cane were commonplace at schools all over the country.

Sigma Nu was founded by three cadets at the Virginia Military Institute after the Civil War. Hazing was rampant in the institution, “the system of physical abuse and hazing of underclassmen at VMI led to James Frank Hopkins, Greenfield Quarles, and James McIlvaine Riley to form the ‘Legion of Honor’ which soon became Sigma Nu Fraternity.” 

The bottom line is that hazing has absolutely no place in today’s fraternity and sorority life. The future of all of our organizations is at stake. That, choir, is the sermon for today.

 

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Theta Phi Alpha Founded on August 30, 1912

Posted on August 30, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Theta Phi Alpha was founded on August 30, 1912, at the University of Michigan.

The Founders of Theta Phi Alpha

In the early 1900s, Catholics were not always accepted in the other fraternal organizations. Theta Phi Alpha’s roots can be traced to the 1909 establishment of a local organization, Omega Upsilon, at the University of Michigan. Father Edward D. Kelly, a Catholic priest and the pastor of the student chapel at Michigan, felt that there should be an organization that could provide the Catholic women at Michigan with an environment that “resembled the Catholic homes from which they came.” This was in a time and place when Catholics were not always welcome in the other fraternal organizations on campus. Interestingly, Theta Phi Alpha birthplace was a state institution that was co-founded by a Catholic priest, Father Gabriel Richard.

I came across this article in the October 1952 issue of The Fraternity Month. That summer, at the Theta Phi Alpha convention at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago, Pi Lambda Sigma, another Catholic sorority, merged with Theta Phi Alpha.

Pi Lambda Sigma was founded at Boston University on June 24, 1921. Delta Delta Delta founder (Sarah) Ida Shaw Martin with support from the Chancellery Office in Boston and the approval of Boston’s Archbishop O’Connell helped create the sorority. Theta Phi Alpha’s Eta chapter was founded at Boston University in 1921 and the two Catholic sororities were rivals on the campus.

Pi Lambda Sigma’s purpose was “to stimulate the social, intellectual, ethical and spiritual life of its members; and to count as a world force through services rendered to others.” In 1927, a second chapter was established at Boston University’s School of Education. Additional chapters were chartered at Temple University, University of Illinois, University of New Hampshire, University of Cincinnati, Quincy University, and Creighton University. Pi Lambda Sigma never attained membership in the National Panhellenic Conference.

In the early 1950s, it became evident to the Pi Lambda Sigma governing council and active members that the existence of the organization was tenuous. Ruth Thompson, a Pi Lambda Sigma, is quoted in the Living Our History Centennial History of Theta Phi Alpha:

Pi Lambda Sigma was faced with several alternatives: a.) merger; b.) dissolution with assets set up in scholarship funds; and c.) each collegiate chapter would make its own decision whether to merge, go local, etc. The final vote was for the merger. I visited the Dean of Women at the University of Cincinnati and asked for advice. The administration was in favor of the merger and was helpful. We checked all NPC groups and sent questionnaires to four sororities. We received two responses besides Theta Phi’s. It took two years to finalize our merger with Theta Phi Alpha. The decision was made because the ideals of both sororities were similar and we hoped that together we would become strong.

The Pi Lambda Sigmas met in convention in May 1952 in Boston. A merger with Theta Phi Alpha was approved. When the Theta Phi Alpha convention convened in Chicago in late June the merger was ratified. There, Alison Hume Lotter, National President of Pi Lambda Sigma, was initiated into Theta Phi Alpha.

At the time of the merger only four of Pi Lambda Sigma’s chapters were active. The chapters at Boston University and the University of Cincinnati combined under Theta Phi Alpha’s letters. The chapter at Creighton University became the Chi Chapter of Theta Phi Alpha in the fall of 1952 and the Quincy College chapter became the Psi Chapter of Theta Phi Alpha in 1954.

Today, just as other organizations have accepted Catholic women, Theta Phi Alpha is open to women of all religions.

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OTD – A Phi Gam and His Pi Phi Wife Become President and First Lady

Posted on August 3, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

On August 3, 1923, Americans were waking to the news that Warren Harding had died suddenly, late in the evening on August 2, after he became ill in a San Francisco hotel. The Vice-President, Calvin Coolidge, and his wife Grace, were visiting the Coolidge homestead in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, where the Vice-President’s father, John, lived.

For about fours hours, the country was without a President, as it took that long for the news to travel from the west coast, where Harding died, to the hills of the small New England town where the Coolidges were staying.  

Colonel John Coolidge’s home did not have a telephone. President Harding’s secretary telegraphed the initial message of Harding’s death to White River Junction, Vermont. The public telephone operator who received the message sought out Coolidge’s stenographer, W. A. Perkins, and Joseph N. McInerney, his chauffeur. They alerted a reporter. Much activity ensued in a short amount of time. They went to the Coolidge homestead at about 2:30 a.m. and knocked. Colonel Coolidge answered the door and received the news. He trudged up the stairs to wake his son.  The President recounted the night in his autobiography:

I noticed that his voice trembled. As the only times I had ever observed that before were when death had visited our family, I knew that something of the gravest nature had occurred.

He placed in my hands an official report and told me that President Harding had just passed away. My wife and I at once dressed.

Before leaving the room I knelt down and, with the same prayer with which I have since approached the altar of the church, asked God to bless the American people and give me power to serve them.

The Coolidge family - Calvin, Jr., Calvin, Grace, and John shortly before Calvin, Jr.'s death. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

The Coolidge family – Calvin, Jr., Calvin, Grace, and John shortly before Calvin, Jr.’s death. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Grace Coolidge went downstairs to join her husband in the parlor. A Bible belonging to Calvin Coolidge’s mother, who died when he was young, was on the table. As her father-in-law, a Windsor County notary, administered the oath of office to her husband by the light of a kerosene lamp in the small (14′ x 17′) parlor, she became the First Lady of the United States. 

First-hand accounts vary as to the people in the room when the oath was administered. That is understandable given the haste of the activity, the darkness of the night, and the solemness of the occasion.

On that night, Grace Coolidge, a charter member of the Pi Beta Phi chapter at the University of Vermont, and Calvin Coolidge, a member of the Phi Gamma Delta Chapter at Amherst College, became the first President and  First Lady to have been initiated into Greek-letter societies as college students.

This full size portrait of President Coolidge was painted by Ercole Cartotto. Although it is now at the Phi Gamma Delta's Headquarters, it was originally commissioned. by the Xi Graduate Chapter originally commissioned this for the Phi Gamma Delta Club in New York City. Ercole Cartotto's painting was dedicated on February 20, 1929, in the Club library. It is "life size."

This full size portrait of President Coolidge was painted by Ercole Cartotto. Although it is now at the Phi Gamma Delta’s Headquarters, it was originally commissioned. by the Xi Graduate Chapter originally commissioned this for the Phi Gamma Delta Club in New York City. Ercole Cartotto’s painting was dedicated on February 20, 1929, in the Club library.

Grace Coolidge in her official First Lady portrait

Grace Coolidge in her official First Lady portrait. In it, she is wearing her Pi Beta Phi arrow. The portrait was given to the United States by Pi Beta Phi.

If you’re ever near Plymouth Notch, Vermont, you can stop by and see the room where Grace Coolidge became First Lady by the light of a kerosene lamp.

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The 21st Century Edition of Baird’s Manual of American College Fraternities

Posted on August 1, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

William Raimond Baird published the first edition of Baird’s Manual of American College Fraternities in 1879. After Baird’s death, others took on the job of editing Baird’s Manual. The twentieth and last edition, edited by Jack Anson, Phi Kappa Tau, and Robert F. Marchesani, Jr., Phi Kappa Psi, was published in 1991. It’s a very large book (8.5 x 11 x 2.5) and if another edition were to be published, it would likely have to be twice the size, what with the changes that have taken place in ensuing three decades. Moreover, it would be outdated before publication.

Carroll Lurding, Delta Upsilon, made his hobby the study of fraternities and sororities. For decades he painstakingly researched the local groups which became national organizations. He kept track of the changes that have happened in the fraternity and sorority world since the last edition of Baird’s was published in 1991. Lurding combed fraternities and sororities publications including histories, pledge manuals, magazines, and websites as well as available yearbooks. He also consulted the publications available at the University of Illinois Library’s Student Life & Culture Archives,  Indiana University’s Lurding Collection of Fraternity Material at the Lilly Library and the New York Public Library’s Baird Collection. He expanded on information offered, including the names of local organizations which became chapters of fraternities and sororities.

The Almanac of Fraternities and Sororities picks up where that 20th Edition of Baird’s Manual ended. And it includes much more! I hope you will take a look at it and use it regularly.

This from the “How to Use” section offers an overview of the Almanac as well as a listing of all the institutions where there is or once was a fraternity and sorority system:

This Almanac contains several sections. There are introductory files with the evolution of the fraternity and sorority system, founding dates, chronology, a list of the founding institutions, and largest organizations by decade. The organizational listing is divided into three sections –Men’s, Women’s, and Co-ed, for organizations with more than three chapters. In each section, there is a listing of the manner in which an organization evolved. Information includes the name of a local if that is how it was founded, when it became a part of the organization and the chapter identifier, as well as any time the chapter may have been inactive. There is also a section dedicated to organizations which are no longer active.

The institutional listing encompasses more than 1,000 North American higher education institutions, listed below for easy of finding in each pdf file. It includes information about the institution’s founding, the status of housing for fraternal organizations and the chronology of the chapters. The men’s groups are listed first, followed by the women’s groups and then the co-ed organizations. Organizations that are in bold-face type are currently active on campus. There is also a section for more than 100 institutions which no longer exist.

Please help publicize this important resource. I just finished the latest updates. There is also a mechanism to send updates if you find any errors.

 

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To the Moon and Back

Posted on July 16, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.
On this day in 1969, three men, the crew of Apollo 11, had just blasted off from the Florida coast and into the great beyond. Despite internet reports to the contrary of the three men aboard Apollo 11, only one was a fraternity man. Michael Collins and  Edwin Eugene “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr., were West Point graduates. Aldrin was elected to Tau Beta Pi, an engineering honor society. Neil A. Armstrong was a fraternity man, an initiate of the Phi Delta Theta chapter at Purdue University. Armstrong’s Phi Delt badge is the first fraternity badge to have been to the moon. He was the first man to walk on the moon. Upon his return to Earth, he presented the badge to Phi Delta Theta and it is on display at the fraternity’s headquarters in Oxford. However, contrary to rumor, he never pinned it on the American flag on the moon, nor did he pin his wife’s Alpha Chi Omega badge to the American flag. This post from Phi Delta Theta is several years old, but you all can do the math.

A P.E.O. Connection

Aldrin carried with him a P.E.O. Centennial Charm in loving memory of his grandmother, Jessie Ross Moon. She was a member of the first Florida chapter of P.E.O., Chapter A, in Miami, as was his aunt, Madeline Moon Sternberg. His aunt and her chapter presented the charm to P.E.O. at the dedication of the P.E.O. Centennial Center on Sept. 29, 1969 during P.E.O.’s Centennial festivities.
The P.E.O. Centennial charm is at the top of the plaque in the center of the circle.
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Skiouros the Alpha Gam Squirrel on Squirrel Appreciation Day, January 21

Posted on May 30, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Alpha Gamma Delta was founded at Syracuse University on May 30, 1904 at the home of Dr. Wellesley Perry Coddington, a Syracuse University professor. By 1901, all seven of the founding National Panhellenic Conference organizations had chapters at Syracuse. Coddington, who had a hand in the early years of Alpha Phi, realized that the campus needed another women’s fraternity. He approached several young female students and discussions ensued. Though excitement started to grow, the women managed to keep the possibility of another organization on campus very quiet. Edith MacConnell was recovering from a serious accident and was a patient at the Homeopathic Hospital. Not even the nurses attending to her had any idea what was taking place, despite the steady stream of visitors to her room.

The announcement in the Daily Orange, the school’s newspaper, noted:

A new Greek-letter fraternity has been organized among the women of the university. The name is Alpha Gamma Delta and the members thus far are: Marguerite Shepard, ’05; Jennie C. Titus, ’05; Georgia Otis, ’06; Ethel E. Brown, ’06; Flora M. Knight, ’06, Estelle Shepard, ’06; Emily H. Butterfield, ’07; Edith MacConnell, ’07; Grace R. Mosher, ’07; Mary L. Snider, ’07.

During Alpha Gamma Delta’s first year, the chapter met in a third floor room of a home at 1005 East Genesee Street. The chapter’s first house was located at 761 Irving Avenue. On April 30, 1907, it was the site of the first Alpha Gamma Delta convention. Delegates from the Beta Chapter at the University of Wisconsin and the Gamma Chapter at Wesleyan College in Connecticut were in attendance, along with several Alpha Chapter representatives.

According to Alpha Gam history aficionado Dr. Ellen Wenzel, the squirrel was first used as Gamma Chapter’s mascot. It was adopted as Alpha Gam’s mascot at the 1909 convention in Athens, Ohio. The Gamma Chapter closed when coeducation was banned at Wesleyan University, but Skiouros the squirrel lives on. (Skiouros is the Greek word meaning squirrel.)

I’ve written about Emily H. Butterfield in other posts. She was an architect and designed the Alpha Chapter house, among others. Her best known sketches are the ones she did of Alpha Gamma Delta’s mascot. She was quite fond of him and  when she was editor of The Quarterly, her drawings of him would appear often.  By mid-century, some chapters weren’t cognizant of Skiouros’ existence.

From the 1972 convention. It is the first squirrel in Nann Blaine Hilyard’s collection.

From the Nann Blaine Hilyard Skiouros collection

Attendees at the 1972 convention received a small brass squirrel from Grand President Lorna Wilson Brigden. She hoped that the gift would spark the interest of Alpha Gams and bring its mascot to the forefront.

A needlepoint pattern of Skiouros was also distributed at the convention. The needlepoint pillow was designed by Jo Ippolito Christensen, member of Alpha Xi chapter (Maryland). She wrote several needlepoint design books.

This effort seems to have been the spark for a Skiouros revival.

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Two Planes Over the Grand Canyon in the Summer of 1956

Posted on May 16, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Pi Beta Phi’s 40th Biennial Convention at the Huntington Sheraton Hotel in Pasadena, California, was the largest one to that date; it took place from June 24-30, 1956. The final banquet was held on Friday evening. Afterwards, many attendees began preparing to return home since some had early flights on Saturday morning.

Janice Hass, Missouri Gamma, was president of her chapter at Drury College. She lived in Springfield, Missouri, where Drury is located. Marie Wilson Klemp, a Colorado Alpha – University of Colorado, the mother of a young child, was serving as President of the Kansas City, Missouri, Alumnae Club. Lois Klein Brock, Colorado Beta – University of Denver, was the delegate for the Arlington-Alexandria, Virginia Alumnae Club. She lived in Falls Church, Virginia. The three boarded a TWA flight for Kansas City. Sally Laughlin, Pennsylvania Epsilon, served as the Penn State chapter’s delegate. She was from McKeesport, Pennsylvania. She boarded a United flight to Chicago. None of the four would make it home.

Lois F. Klein Brock

The two planes, a United Airlines Douglas DC-7 and a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation, took off from Los Angeles within minutes of each other on June 30, 1956. The TWA pilot requested to fly above the clouds and the planes were cruising at the same altitude — 21,000 feet. At about 10 a.m., each pilot reported that they would be crossing over the Grand Canyon at the same position at 10:31 a.m. Unfortunately, they did not report this fact to the same station, so that the pilots were not made aware of each other’s presence.

The planes crashed over the Grand Canyon that morning. All 128 people, the total of passengers and crew on both planes, were killed. At the time, it held the distinction of being the deadliest American plane crash. More importantly, it led to the establishment of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to modernize air traffic control so that accidents of that type could be prevented.

In 2014, a plaque was dedicated at the overlook above the Grand Canyon accident site making the crash site a national historic landmark. The marker reads: “This tragic site represents a watershed moment in the modernization of America’s airways, leading to the establishment of the Federal Aviation Administration and national standards for aviation safety.”

On July 5, Pi Beta Phi Grand President Marianne Reid Wild sent a letter to officers, chapters and alumnae clubs telling them of the tragic loss of the four Pi Phis. She asked that each chapter/club’s membership be notified. Her instructions continued, “In loving memory of those whom many Pi Phis had come to know during the Convention, Pi Beta Phi declares a period of official mourning from July 15th to July 25th. In accordance with the Chapter Manual a small strip of black ribbon will be worn under the badge for that period in remembrance.”

Pennsylvania Epsilon’s chapter letter in the Spring 1956 Arrow noted that Sally Laughlin had been elected to Pi Gamma Alpha Fine Arts Honorary. In the Chapter Reports section of the Winter 1956 Arrow, Missouri Gamma reported, “A scholarship fund which is to be made available to any Drury girl, has been established under the auspices of Pi Beta Phi in memory of Janice Traer Haas, Missouri Gamma president.”

 

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Happy Founders’ Day, Alpha Delta Pi!

Posted on May 15, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

On May 15, 1851, Alpha Delta Pi was founded as the Adelphean Society at Wesleyan Female College in Macon, Georgia by six young women. The founders are Eugenia Tucker Fitzgerald, Ella Pierce Turner, Octavia Andrew Rush, Mary Evans Glass, Sophronia Woodruff Dews, and Elizabeth Williams Mitchell.  Fitzgerald, known to generations of Alpha Delta Pis as “Mother Fitzgerald,” was the leader and first president of the Adelpheans.

In 1905, the Society changed its name to Alpha Delta Phi and installed its second chapter at Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. A year later, a third chapter was founded at Mary Baldwin Seminary, in Staunton, Virginia. Alpha Delta Phi joined the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) in 1909. The installation of the Sigma Chapter at the University of Illinois in 1912 came shortly after the installation, on the same campus, of the Illinois Chapter of Alpha Delta Phi, a men’s fraternity founded in 1832 at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York.  The Illinois members made their organization aware of this duplication of name and the problems that surfaced because of it. In 1913, the convention body voted to change the name to Alpha Delta Pi.

In 1926, a bench was dedicated on the Wesleyan College campus. It was given in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Adelphean Society. The bench was designed by Emily Langham of the Sophie Newcomb College chapter. The event was chronicled in the 1930 History of Alpha Delta Pi. “We have just had a big thrill way down in Dixie. When one attends a family reunion, there is always a feeling of both pleasure and pain, so many recollections are aroused. As the large number of Alpha alumnae gathered together for the presentation of the Marble Bench by Alpha Delta Pi to Wesleyan College, commemorating the seventy-fifth anniversary of its founding, they felt they were returning to an old home, the mother gone, but her children ‘rising up to call her blessed.’ Every loyal heart there felt with keenest appreciation the placing of this Memorial at the home of Alpha Chapter.”

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Dedication of Founders Bench

Dedication of the Memorial Bench

The bench was placed in “a grove of great oaks. Waving mimosa trees in full bloom and magnolias added the floral decoration.” Ella Clark Anderson, the oldest member present, was a member of the class of 1862. Descendants of the founders were present when the blue and white drapery was drawn aside and the bench was unveiled. Ten years later, Alpha Delta Pi once again gathered on campus to dedicate another gift to the college. The Alpha Delta Pi’s Memorial Fountain is located in the center of Wesleyan College’s quadrangle; it was a gift to celebrate the college’s centennial in 1936. Made of Georgia marble, the Alpha Delta Pi coat-of-arms is engraved on the large slanting block at center. The names of the founders of Alpha Delta Pi Sorority are engraved on the stairs leading up to the fountain. Other elements of the fountain were added on other commemorations including two lions, the mascot of Alpha Delta Pi, given in 2011 to celebrate the College’s 175th anniversary.

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