Yesterday was Alpha Kappa Lambda’s 101st anniversary. It was founded at the University of California, Berkeley on April 22, 1914. It was the first fraternity to be founded west of the Rockies (there were chapters of other fraternities on California campuses including UCB and Stanford, but they were all founded east of the Rockies). Alpha Kappa Lambda’s roots go back about eight years before that when a four men who had helped with the cleanup after the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake expressed a desire to form a house club. This desire was expressed during a YMCA conference and the friends talked about the need Christian men had for an affordable place to live and study. House clubs were common in the days before colleges and universities provided college or university housing and meal plans. In 1907, they came together as “Los Amigos” house club.
One of the Founders Reverend Gail Cleland, later said, “When we organized Los Amigos as a house club…house clubs and fraternities were dime a dozen. They came, they lived for a few months or a few years, then they went out of existence again. But Los Amigos did not go out of existence.” Seven years later, spurred on by a suggestion from the University’s President, the men became a fraternity of one chapter. In 1920, another chapter was founded at nearby Stanford University.
Although there are no Trader Joe’s where I live in the middle of absolutely nowhere, I delight in visiting the stores when I am in St. Louis or Connecticut. Two Alpha Kappa Lambdas who were in the Stanford chapter together are responsible for much of what Traders Joe’s has become. Joe Coulombe, who as a Stamford student sold Kirby vacuum cleaners door to door, worked for Rexall Drugs and helped them found a Pronto Markets in 1958. Pronto Markets were similar to 7-Eleven Stores. When Rexall decided to close the Pronto Markets, Coulombe purchased them. In 1967, he opened the first Trader Joe’s in Pasadena, California. In 1979, the company was sold to Theo Albrecht, of the German company Aldi Nord, but Coulombe stayed on board as CEO.
John V. Shields, Jr., after receiving an MBA and doing a two year stint with Uncle Sam, joined Macy’s in a training program. He was vice president of operations when he left Macy’s in 1978. He took a similar position at Mervyn’s and retired in 1987. A few weeks later, Shields became a consultant for Trader Joe’s. Coulombe wanted advice on expanding the business. Coulombe retired a year later, and Shields became CEO. Shields retired in 2001.
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My heart breaks for the families and friends of the college students who have died recently. Yesterday’s car accident involving seven Georgia Southern University nursing students headed to Savannah for clinical training was tragic. They were travelling in two cars to their final clinical of the semester. It was a chain reaction accident, not at all weather related. The five students who died, Emily Clark, Morgan Bass, Abbie Deloach, Catherine “McKay” Pittman, and Caitlyn Baggett, were members of the GSU sororitycommunity. Megan Richards and Brittney McDaniel were injured. My prayers are with their families and the entire GSU community. I hope to write a bit more about them in the coming days.
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© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2015. All Rights Reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory/
