Fraternity History & More

Marguerite Hearsey, Ph.D., Sigma Sigma Sigma, #NotableSororityWomen #WHM2019

Posted on March 3, 2019 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Marguerite Capen Hearsey was born and raised in East Orange, New Jersey. She enrolled at Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia, where she became a member of Sigma Sigma Sigma. A report in the 1912-13 volume of the Triangle said of her:

Marguerite Hearsey of Hollins Institute deserves great mention and honor, for she is one of the most deserving girls Sigma has known. At Hollins she is gaining quite a reputation, her greatest honor being Editor-in-Chief of the college magazine. We are all proud of Marguerite and wish her greater success.

She also served as Secretary of the Y. W. C. A., and a member of the Student
Council. When the Iota of Virginia chapter of Phi Beta Kappa was installed at Hollins College in 1962, Hearsey was one of eight alumnae invited to become a member. After graduation in 1914, she taught French and English at Georgetown College in Kentucky.

She was the first secretary treasurer of the Association of Pedagogical Sororities (later the Association of Education Sororities) when it began as an agreement between Tri Sigma and Alpha Sigma Alpha. The Panhellenic Representative of Sigma Sigma Sigma, she had spent the summer in Jeffrey, New Hampshire. On her way home, she stopped in Boston, where Ida Shaw Martin lived and they worked on formulating the necessary items for the organization.

During World War I, she worked for the Y.W.C.A. first in Honolulu, Hawaii, and then Boston and New York until 1921. She taught English composition at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania from 1922-24, and earned a Master’s from Radcliffe College in 1923. From 1924-25, she taught at Wellesley College and then again from 1927-29.

She earned a Ph.D. from Yale in 1929. Hearsey was a Sterling Fellow and Elizabethan literature was her field. She also studied at the Sorbonne in France.

In 1929, Hearsey returned to Roanoke and taught English at Hollins, later becoming acting dean of women. While at Hollins, Margaret Wise Brown was one of Hearsey’s students. The author of Goodnight Moon credited Hearsey with encouraging her to pursue writing. Five years after her 1932 graduation, Brown gave Hearsey a copy of When the Wind Blew, her first published book. Brown inscribed it, “Remembering the stumbling words that led up to whatever clarity is here. And always thanking you for the first encouragement.”

Hearsey moved to Massachusetts in 1936 where she became the 14^th principal of Abbot Academy in Andover. During her tenure she served as president of the National Association of Principals of Schools for Girls and she was also on the board of the Headmistresses Association of the East.

She retired from Abbot in 1955. A dormitory on the campus bears her name. Abbot Academy merged with the formerly all-male Phillips Academy in 1973. In 2013, Head of Phillips Academy John Palrey closed his talk to the graduating class with the words Hearsey had spoken to Abbot’s Class of 1940 at their graduation:

We have come now to the real good-bye and there is little more that I can say or would say at such time in your personal loves and in this unprecedented and unpredictable world, than ‘good-bye’ with all its original, reverent significance – God be with you.”

Hearsey died on January 22, 1990 at the age of 97.

© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2019. All Rights Reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory/ and Focus on Fraternity History Facebook group

Posted in Association of Education Sororities, Fran Favorite, Ida Shaw Martin, Sigma Sigma Sigma | Tagged Abbot Academy, Association of Education Sororities, Hollins College, Ida Shaw Martin, Marguerite Hearsey, Sigma Sigma Sigma | Comments Off

Rowena Harvey, Theta Phi Alpha, #NotableSororityWomen #WHM2019

Posted on March 2, 2019 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Rowena Harvey joined Theta Phi Alpha when she was a student at Indiana University. Having served as editor of the Wednesday Echo at Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, she continued her interest in journalism at IU.

As an undergraduate, she was the second female editor in chief of the Indiana Daily Student. She was associate editor of the Crimson Bull humor magazine and the Hooiser literary magazine in addition to serving on the Board of editors for the 1921 Arbutus yearbook. Harvey was a member of the Women’s Athletic Association, Writers’ Club and the Marquette Club. She was a member of Theta Sigma Phi journalism fraternity and Pi Lambda Theta education fraternity. Elected to membership in Phi Beta Kappa,
she ranked fourth in the class of 1921.

Harvey began her graduate career at Indiana and earned a Master’s degree in 1922. She was hired to teach journalism and direct publications at the new South Side High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

She hit the ground running. In 1923, the Southside Times, the newspaper she advised, was judged the best high school newspaper in the nation. It consistently won awards during her tenure.

She served on the board of the Indiana Journalistic Teachers and Advisers Association, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association and the Indiana High School Press Association. The National School Press Association named her one of its Pioneer Award winners.

Harvey was editor of the Compass of Theta Phi Alpha from 1930-35, and she established the sorority’s Chapter Publicity Award in 1935.

She died in 1971. In 1974, the Indiana High School Press Association established the Rowena Harvey Award. The award morphed into several awards in different categories and they are today known as Harvey Awards.

© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2019. 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/. Focus on Fraternity History Facebook group

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Beulah Armstrong, Ph.D., Zeta Tau Alpha, #NotableSororityWomen #WHM2019

Posted on March 1, 2019 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

In 1913, Beulah Armstrong entered Baker University in Kansas. There she joined the Sigma chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha in a pledge class of eight women. According to a report inThemis of Zeta Tau Alpha:

While in school, Beulah took part in athletics, was a member of several religious and literary organizations, was on the Y. W. C. A. Cabinet, graded papers for the mathematics department, taught a mathematics class part of the time, was treasurer for the fraternity a year, and in addition to all that, she did as much work in the fraternity as any other girl, and much more than some girls even cared to do.

In 1917, Armstrong graduated with honors, and she was elected to Baker’s honorary scholastic fraternity, Alpha Delta Sigma. She won a fellowship to the University of Kansas where she earned a Master’s degree in 1918.

Armstrong entered the University of Illinois where she began her doctoral studies. The first year she was on scholarship and for the following two years she had a fellowship.
At Illinois, she was a charter member of its Sigma Delta Epsilon chapter, a fraternity for graduate women in science, now known as Graduate Women in Science. She was invited to join Kappa Delta Pi, which was then an honorary educational sorority. She was initiated as an associate member of Sigma Xi.

As she was in the midst of her doctoral work, a member of her chapter described Armstrong as:

ready for new fields of conquest, for wherever she may be, she will always be a worker. To be happy, Beulah must be busy, and as it is her habit to keep busy, she radiates happiness and contentment. All who know her love her, and are proud to be named among her friends.

She became Dr. Armstrong in 1921. Her dissertation was titled, Mathematical induction in group theory. She stayed where she was and began her career as an instructor. She worked her way up the academic ladder, retiring as associate professor emeritus. Many of her students became math teachers.

At the University of Illinois, she continued to be active with Zeta Tau Alpha. She was an advisor, an alumnae association member and an ever present example of finer and nobler womanhood.

Beulah Armstrong is listed as ZTA faculty member

Armstrong retired in 1963 and she died on February 22, 1965, at the age of 64. The University of Illinois Zeta Tau Alpha chapter dedicated a study in the chapter house as a memorial to her.

Posted in Baker University, Fran Favorite, University of Illinois, Zeta Tau Alpha | Tagged Baker University, Beulah Armstrong, University of llinois, Zeta Tau Alpha | Comments Off

Kappa Kappa Psi and Its Lambda Chi Alpha Connection

Posted on February 26, 2019 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

On November 19, 1919, Kappa Kappa Psi, a “co-educational fraternal organization that advances college and university bands for the benefit of its members and society through dedicated service and support to bands, encouragement of musical growth, lifelong educational experiences, leadership opportunities, and recognition” was founded in Stillwater, Oklahoma, at Oklahoma A&M College, now Oklahoma State University. The organization is gearing up for its upcoming centennial.

Michael J Raymond, Ph.D., an alumnus of the Miami University chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha who has written extensively about his fraternity’s history, wrote this about the founding of Kappa Kappa Psi and its connection to Lambda Chi:

Music has been associated with Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity from its earliest years. In the past its chapter participated in campus songfests, Mother’s Day musicals, and serenades. In addition to the tradition of singing, it is a little-known fact that members of Lambda Chi Alpha played a major role in the founding of Kappa Kappa Psi Honorary Band Fraternity.
This fraternity was created to promote excellence in college and university band programs by providing leadership, recognition, and service opportunities to its members. The organization has approximately 180 chapters throughout the United States.
Kappa Kappa Psi was founded at Oklahoma A&M College, now Oklahoma State University, in Stillwater, on November 27, 1919. The organization has many famous alumni in its ranks including bandmaster John Philip Sousa, musician Ray Charles, composer John Williams, band leader Lawrence Welk, and former President Bill Clinton.
This story of Kappa Kappa Psi and Lambda Chi Alpha intersect at Stillwater, Oklahoma. Lambda Chi’s Alpha-Eta chapter was installed as the first national fraternity at Oklahoma A&M College on September 15, 1917. In less than two years following its establishment, the chapter would supply five of Kappa Kappa Psi’s ten founding members.
The following Lambda Chis were founders of Kappa Kappa Psi: William H. Coppedge, principal designer of the Kappa Psi membership badge; Andrew F. Martin, known as “Mr. Kappa Psi,” first grand president and long-time executive secretary of the fraternity; Dick Hurst, grand secretary of the fraternity; Clayton E. Soule; and Iron Hawthorne Nelson. It is interesting to note that these men were members of Alpha-Eta chapter at the same time Chester Gould, creator of the Dick Tracy strip, who was also a member of Kappa Kappa Psi.

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Phi Kappa Psi’s Monmouth Connection on #PhiPsi167

Posted on February 19, 2019 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Happy 167th to Phi Kappa Psi! It was founded on February 19, 1852 in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, at Jefferson College (now Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania). Phi Kappa Psi’s founders are William Henry Letterman and Charles Page Thomas Moore.

At Washington and Jefferson College

A few years ago, I wrote a history of the Illinois Delta Chapter of Phi Kappa Psi at the University of Illinois. In reading through the early Shield of Phi Kappa Psi issues, I discovered that there was once a chapter at Monmouth College, where Pi Beta Phi and Kappa Kappa Gamma were founded. It was the Illinois Gamma Chapter of Phi Kappa Psi.

According to the 1902 History of Phi Kappa Psi, Illinois Gamma was founded in April of 1871, not 1870 as had been noted in previous records. According to the history:

It was the outgrowth of a revolt of certain members of Delta Tau Delta and Phi Gamma Delta, who withdrew from these fraternities with the expectation of securing a charter from one of the leading eastern fraternities. Being disappointed in this hope, the band of petitioners investigated the merits of other fraternities represented in the West, and after this scrutiny petitioned Phi Kappa Psi for a charter. The petition was granted, and W.P. Kane was sent by the petitioners to Cornell College, Iowa, to be initiated into the chapter of Phi Kappa Psi there.

The new chapter began its career under most favorable auspices. The faculty was not hostile and the members were congenial, so that the true value of fraternity experiences was felt from the first. The members took practically all the college honors in sight, and nothing seemed to stand in the way of a most vigorous life.

In the 1870s, the administration, under pressure from the church authorities who helped fund the institution, turned against the organizations. They issued a ban. The chapters continued to operate sub-rosa for a number of years, but ultimately, all activity died out.

Monmouth College *Courier*, September 1, 1871

At the 1888 Grand Arch Council, the charter of “the only remaining sub-rosa chapter at Monmouth College”, was revoked. The chapter has been dormant ever since.

The first member in the list of initiates, J.A. Grier, was James Alexander Grier, who would go on to marry Ada Bruen, a founder of Pi Beta Phi. He served in the U.S. Army from 1861-65 before enrolling at Monmouth College. He became a Presbyterian minister and spent his career in his native Pennsylvania. One of the Grier’s sons, Rev. James Harper Grier, D.D., served as the fifth President of Monmouth College, from 1936-52. Neither of his parents lived to see him installed as President.

*Pi Beta Phi was founded in 1867 as I.C. Sorosis, Pi Beta Phi was its secret Greek motto. In 1888, the name change was made official by convention vote, although many chapter already were using the Greek letters. In the clipping I.C. is named alongside Kappa Kappa Gamma and not among the literary societies.

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Birthday Parties, Scraps and Snacks, and a P.E.O. Book

Posted on February 13, 2019 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

I’m a big fan of Mike Rowe’s Returning the Favor Facebook show. If you haven’t seen it, tune in now and make this one your first to view. It features, Megs Yunn, an Alpha Xi Delta alumna from the Marietta College chapter. The episodes are a great reminder that one person can make a difference.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1822211364545179

***

A few weeks ago, at Pi Beta Phi’s College Weekend, I met Victoria Hempstead, the Vice President of Fraternity Development of the Texas Epsilon chapter at the University of North Texas. She told me about a Scraps and Snacks event she was planning for the chapter and its alumnae. I asked her to send me some pictures of the event and she did. Looks like it was a fun event!

***

Three P.E.O. friends, Susan Sellers, Anne Pettygrove, and Ruth Glancy, and I spent the last few years writing We Who Are Sisters, a coffee-table picture book history of the P.E.O. Sisterhood. In late October, we handed it off to the printer. After time at the printer and binder, it is finally done and copies are being mailed to those who pre-ordered the book. My copy arrived last week, and I was floored by its style and substance. Writing a book by committee was a bit of a challenge as we are all strong-willed creative people, but it was an exercise in making the best of the talents we possess. I hope the membership will enjoy the fruit of our labor.

Posted in Alpha Xi Delta, Fran Favorite, P.E.O., Pi Beta Phi | Tagged Alpha Xi Delta, Meggs Yunn, Mike Rowe, P.E.O., Pi Beta Phi, University of North Texas | Comments Off

“By God! Mother Cahill’s Picture!”

Posted on February 6, 2019 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

As I was researching sorority women’s service during World War I, I came across this entry in a post WWI Banta’s Greek Exchange and it sent me down a rabbit hole. Who was Mother Cahill?

Ann, who was sometimes referred to as Anna, Cahill, moved from Massachusetts to Lawrence Kansas in 1892. An item in the society pages of the September 10, 1908 issue of the Daily Gazette, a Lawrence, Kansas, newpaper, read, “Mrs. Ann Cahill is in charge of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house as matron this year.”

In an article in the Phi Gamma Delta entitled My Life Among the Cannibals Being the Reminiscences of One Who Was ‘Mother’ of Fiji Chapter at Kansas for Seventeen Years, she described how she and a friend walked past the Phi Gam house on Louisiana Street one day. Cahill remarked that she would like to “fix the curtains that were hanging at all sorts of angles and lengths at the windows. There was a sort of desolate look about the place that seemed to demand the presence of a woman.”

Her friend, a Phi Gam wife, told her that the chapter was trying to find a woman to live in the house and serve as a hostess or chaperone. They had hired someone, but it was not a good match and she left. Cahill inquired about the job and was hired. According to a 1914 article, she took the job against her doctor’s wishes. However, “the work served as a tonic, by giving her an outlet for her nervous energy, and she immediately got better.”

Phi Gam Field Secretary C.C. Chambers stated that the President of Kansas University praised Cahill by saying, “A house matron like Mrs. Cahill is the most effective refutation of anti-fraternity sentiment that I know of.”

Cahill reflected on her job, “It was not long until the boys found that I was no ogre and that I really wanted to be of assistance to them…. It very gradually grew to be a fashion for first one and then two or three or four at a time to ask permission to come to my room after dinner just to talk. Many and varied were the topics so gravely discussed in the small room I called mine. It was cluttered and crowded with a sewing machine, a day bed, a table on which were odds and ends of everything from party favors which I made with the boys’ help to table linen which needed darning. But there was always room for any of the boys even though they had to clear off a place to sit down. I would not take a prince’s ransom for the memories that cluster about that room.”

She also described how she was given the name “Mother Cahill.” At first she addressed each member as “Mr. So-and-So and in return was addressed as Mrs. Cahill. Some time after the beginning of the new school year I was informed at dinner one night there was to be a meeting in the north room and my presence was desired. I had no idea as to what was coming and decided that the boys had tired of the arrangement and that I was to be released. I felt upset for by this time I had grown very fond of the boys and was accustomed to their ways. I was more than ever interested in their welfare. The meeting was called to order and there was a feeling of general unrest in the air. I was reminded of nothing so much as a,lot of small boys who were in a tight place and did not know how to get out .of it. Finally the president said, ‘Mrs. Cahill, we want to ask you a question.’ ‘I shall be very glad to answer it if I can,’ was my reply. ‘Well, we want to know,’ and he took a long breath, ‘if you will allow us to call you Mother instead of Mrs. Cahill.'”

She added, “For a moment I was stunned and then told them that I thought they had paid me a very high compliment and that I should be glad indeed if they would call me Mother. From that day to this I have been Mother to every Phi Gamma Delta and to very many others who have been, or for that matter who are now, in Kansas University. I have been asked many times if I did not think the boys were unduly familiar in such a mode of address but my answer has been just what I told the boys — that I felt they were showing me signal honor and respect and that I enjoy being called Mother.”

An article in the March 1929 Phi Gamma Delta, noted that although Cahill had not missed a pig dinner for 23 years. Moreover, she had followed the careers of “her boys,” had kissed their brides, made presents for their babies, and rejoiced in their achievements.

She described her experience working with the chapter, “They were wonderful years that I spent with Pi Deuteron and the memories are very precious to me. The most wonderful part of all is to know that I am held in kindly remembrance, for it is seldom that even one week goes by that I do not have a visit or a letter from some of the men who shared the tips and downs of those years. Each year I feel sure that I am a thing of the past but when Mothers’ Day and my birthday and Christmas bring the messages from all quarters of the globe I know I am not forgotten. And I shall be Mother to the end.”

Cahill died on March 24, 1933 and she is buried in Lawrence, Kansas.

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Woodrow Wilson, Grace Coolidge and Me

Posted on January 31, 2019 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Phi Kappa Psi is the only fraternity (as far as I can tell) that can boast of a U.S. President who was an active member of two chapters and served as a delegate to the fraternity’s Grand Arch Council (Convention).

Woodrow Wilson became a member of Phi Kappa Psi in 1879 when he was initiated into the Virginia Alpha chapter at the University of Virginia. He was 23. He had already graduated from Princeton and was at UVA to study law. In 1883, he affiliated with the chapter at Johns Hopkins University.

The minute books from the Virginia Alpha chapter include this mention of Wilson. On January 31, 1880, 139 years ago today, a successful motion was made to “subscribe $3.00 each to pay the expenses of Bro. Wilson, our delegate to Washington.” On February 28, 1880, it was noted in the minutes that “Bro. Wilson, delegate to the G.A.C. made a verbal report of his trip and was listened to with marked attention.”

Phi Psi’s Woodrow Wilson Leadership School is named in his honor. From 1902-10, Wilson served as President of Princeton University. In 1911, he became Governor of New Jersey. In 1913, he began his term of office as the 28th President of the United States.

Did being a Phi Psi and attending the G.A.C. give Wilson a leg up on his journey to President? Who really knows? I am a strong proponent of undergraduates getting a first hand look at their inter/national organization by attending as many GLO sponsored educational events as possible. Exposure to inter/national programs and events usually help and encourage one to remain connected to their organization, at least in my opinion.

My twitter feed for 2019 weekends has been filled with pictures of collegians at GLO workshops. It will continue for the next few months, with AFLV, AFLV West and NGLA, and then it becomes convention season.

What better way to segue into how I spent my weekend among Pi Phi friends at College Weekend in St. Louis. It was a much needed shot in the arm for me as I have been caregiving for many months now. It was an opportunity to connect with Maggie and Bianca who were in my Halo Huddle at Leadership Institute this summer. They asked if they would make it into the blog and how could I not oblige? (And a shout out to my 2018 co-facilitator Kristi, who was there on Friday before the picture was taken, and to 2016 co-facilitator Mackenzie and collegian Katie.)

It was also an opportunity to spend some time with my daughter, a 2011 alumna initiate. She is an Alumnae Advisory Committee member. She serves alongside the daughter of a long-time friend (we go way back!), Pi Phi past Grand Council member and its former NPC Delegate Linda Ibsen.

Please note that before she married Calvin Coolidge, Grace Goodhue attended the 1901 Pi Beta Phi Convention which was held at Syracuse University. She was a loyal member of the organization her entire life, at one point entertaining 1,100+ members in the White House when the portrait of her was given by Pi Phi to the U.S.

Grace Coolidge in her official First Lady portrait. There’s an arrow upon this red dress.

Posted in Fran Favorite, Phi Kappa Psi, Pi Beta Phi, University of Vermont, University of Virginia | Tagged Grace Goodhue Coolidge, Pi Beta Phi, Woodrow Wilson | Comments Off

Happy 149th, Kappa Alpha Theta!

Posted on January 27, 2019 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Kappa Alpha Theta was founded on January 27, 1870. In 1867, 17-year-old Bettie McReynolds Locke [Hamilton] was the first female to enroll in Indiana Asbury University (now DePauw University) in Greencastle, Indiana. Although the first decision to allow women to attend Asbury was made in 1860, it was rescinded several times with debate following each decision. She later said of her time as a student, “We were all refined, good girls from good families, and we realized somehow that we weren’t going to college just for ourselves, but for all the girls who would follow after us – if we could just win out.”

The daughter of Dr. John Wesley Locke, a mathematics professor, she was a formidable student. During her sophomore year, Locke received an invitation to wear a Phi Gamma Delta badge. The badge did not come with a dating arrangement as later tradition would have it, nor did it come with the benefits given to men who were initiated into the fraternity. When Locke declined the badge because it did not come with full membership rights and responsibilities, the Phi Gamma Delta chapter substituted a silver cake basket, inscribed with the Greek letters “Phi Gamma Delta.” With encouragement and prodding from her father, a Beta Theta Pi alumnus, and her brother William, a Phi Gamma Delta, Locke began plans to start her own fraternity. She and Alice Allen, another female in the first coeducational Asbury class, studied Greek, parliamentary law and heraldry with an eye towards founding a fraternity for women.

On January 27, 1870, Locke stood before a mirror and repeated the words of the Kappa Alpha Theta initiation vow she had written. She then initiated Alice Olive Allen [Brant], Bettie Tipton [Lindsey], and Hannah Fitch [Shaw]. Five weeks later, Mary Stevenson, a freshman, joined the group. Badges larger than the current Kappa Alpha Theta badges were painstakingly designed by the founders and made by Fred Newman, a New York jeweler. The badges were first worn to chapel services by the members of Kappa Alpha Theta on March 14, 1870.

Kappa Alpha Theta’s extension quickly took place. Locke’s father had a friend who was a trustee at Indiana University in Bloomington. The friend had a daughter, Minnie Hannamon, who was college age. In April, a letter was written to Hannamon and Locke visited Bloomington in early May. On May 18, 1870, Locke installed Kappa Alpha Theta at Indiana University with the initiation of the three charter members, Hannamon, Lizzie Hunter and Lizzie Harbinson. It was evidence of the policy outlined in the original constitution giving the mother chapter at Indiana Asbury University the power to establish other collegiate chapters.

The next three chapters were short-lived. In December of 1870, a chapter was established at Cincinnati Wesleyan University, an experiment that only lasted six months.[1 A chapter at Millersburg College, a women’s college in Kentucky lasted from April 13, 1871 through January 22, 1872, and one at Moore’s Hill College in Indiana lasted five years. According to Wilson (1956) Moore’s Hill College was the first Theta chapter to feel the pressure of faculty opposition as well as a limited number of women at the institution. In November of 1879, the corresponding secretary of the Alpha chapter read a letter from Hannah Fitch regarding the chapter at Moore’s Hill. Fitch replied that she thought the Moore’s Hill chapter records were destroyed when the boarding house in which they were kept burned down.

Northwestern Christian College, today known as Butler University, became home to the Indiana Delta chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta on February 27, 1874. When Kappa Alpha Theta changed the naming system of chapters, it became the Gamma chapter. Two members of the chapter at Indiana University, Teresa Luzadder Gregory and Laura Henly, assisted in the formation of the chapter. The chapter was inactive from February 25, 1886 through November 3, 1906.

[1] The chapter was revived as the Alpha Tau chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta in 1913.

Posted in DePauw University, Kappa Alpha Theta, Phi Gamma Delta | Tagged Bettie Locke, DePauw University, Indiana Asbury University, Kappa Alpha Theta | Comments Off

Julia Morgan Nearing Kappa Alpha Theta’s 149th

Posted on January 24, 2019 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

I missed Julia Morgan’s birthday, but was reminded of it via a reader of this blog. She belongs to the East Bay Yesterday Facebook group and there was a post about her and many comments about her and the buildings she designed. One of my earliest blog posts in 2012 was about Morgan and I’ve included it below.

It’s also a great time to note that Kappa Alpha Theta will turn 149 on January 27. I also have a favor to ask of readers. With Women’s History Month coming up in March, please let the sorority women you come in contact know that there are a plethora of #NotableSororityWomen who have been profiled on this site. The search feature is easy to use. I plan to celebrate the month again this year with posts about the outstanding women who have worn our badges.

The renowned architect Julia Morgan was a native Californian. She was born in San Francisco on January 20, 1872. Morgan entered the University of California at Berkeley where she became a member of the Omega Chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta, which was founded in 1890.

She was one of the first women to graduate from Berkeley with a civil engineering degree. Although she developed a keen interest in architecture, there were no architecture programs on the west coast. After graduation, she headed to Paris to study at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. At that time there were entrance exams and the school was not very welcoming of foreigners. She did not take “no” for an answer. Instead of returning home, she spent two years studying and working in a Paris studio to prove herself and her interest in the field. Morgan was the first woman to enter the Ecole’s Department of Architecture. Four years later, she graduated and returned to California.

Morgan was the first woman in California to be granted an architect’s license. She first worked with John Galen Howard in San Francisco. At the time he was supervising the University of California Master Plan and she worked on several campus buildings.

Morgan opened her own office on 1904. Her first independent commission was a bell tower on the Mills College campus, a structure that withstood the 1906 earthquake. The rebuilding after the earthquake resulted in a number of commissions for her.

In 1908, she designed her chapter’s first official house; at 2723 Durant, it included a swimming pool. Pheobe Apperson Hearst hired Morgan to remodel her Hacienda del Pozo de Verona in Pleasanton, California. In 1919, Hearst’s son, William Randolph, hired Morgan to design a main building and guest houses for his ranch at San Simeon. She spent the next 28 years overseeing almost every aspect of the Hearst Castle.

In 1924, the Theta House Association knew changes had to be made to the Kappa Alpha Theta house because it “was no longer adequate or convenient” for the growing chapter. They loved the house with its “long low living and dining rooms which were so easily thrown into one commodious hall for parties. Even the aquarium held a special niche in our affections.”[1]

The House Association asked Morgan’s advice. Although she was busy designing a Los Angeles home for girls in the film industry, sponsored by the Y.W.C.A. (Hollywood Studio Club), an orphanage in San Francisco, and several private homes, she made time for her Theta sisters. According to a report, “It would have been very expensive to entirely rebuild; moreover, she knew every beam and joist in that three storied, shingled building and she knew what possibilities were hidden away. Today, the same old framework and foundation are clothed in soft creamy stucco fashioned in the English Tudor style. The house now faces the garden and in all ways is different from the former one. Inside are six beautiful carved doors and a stately stone fireplace, the gifts of Miss Morgan’s generosity.”[2]

To meet updated structural safety standards, architect Gardner A. Dailey rebuilt the house in 1940. An addition to the west side of the house was added in 1956. A Steinway grand piano from Morgan’s home remains a link for the chapter to one of its most distinguished alumnae.

In the 1920s, Morgan designed a home for the Delta Zeta chapter at 2311 LeConte Avenue; the Presbyterian Westminster House now owns it. She also designed the Georgian-style house on Piedmont Avenue in which Kappa Kappa Gamma’s Pi Chapter now resides. It was originally built for Chancellor Charles Mills Gayley.

Morgan and her staff designed more than 800 buildings. During her 45 years of practice she shared her profits with her staff. In 1927, she was described by a Theta sister, “Julia Morgan is modest; she prefers to remain unsung. But with the evidence of her success and of her thoughtful kindness before us always, we are proud to number her among Theta alumnae.”[3]

She died in 1957 at the age of 85. In 2008, she was inducted into the California Hall of Fame. Although she never married, there was at least one other fraternity woman in her family. A grand niece, Ellen North, became a member of the Chi Omega chapter at the UC – Berkeley in the 1970s.

[1], [2], [3] Kappa Alpha Theta, January 1927, p. 171.

Fraternity History & More

Marguerite Hearsey, Ph.D., Sigma Sigma Sigma, #NotableSororityWomen #WHM2019

Rowena Harvey, Theta Phi Alpha, #NotableSororityWomen #WHM2019

Beulah Armstrong, Ph.D., Zeta Tau Alpha, #NotableSororityWomen #WHM2019

Kappa Kappa Psi and Its Lambda Chi Alpha Connection

Phi Kappa Psi’s Monmouth Connection on #PhiPsi167

Birthday Parties, Scraps and Snacks, and a P.E.O. Book

“By God! Mother Cahill’s Picture!”

Woodrow Wilson, Grace Coolidge and Me

Happy 149th, Kappa Alpha Theta!

Julia Morgan Nearing Kappa Alpha Theta’s 149th

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Focus on Fraternity History

Happy Founders’ Day to: