This snippet is from the November 1933 Fraternity Month.
And while I had another Alpha Chi Omega to profile for #WHM2023, I was curios about Alta Allen Loud. And so, I changed my plans.
Marshall Evening Chronicle, June 29, 1933
As happened in the days when newspapers were one of the few methods for news to travel, it was outdated before it was published. Alta Allen Loud died on June 28, 1933 at the age of 55.
She was initiated into Alpha Chi Omega’s Beta chapter at Albion College in Albion, Michigan. Her sister, Janette Allen Cushman, was an Alpha Chi, too, and also served on Grand Council. As a college student, Alta traveled from Albion to Greencastle, Indiana, to attend Alpha Chi’s convention. She was elected Grand Secretary in 1897, the year before she graduated from Albion College.
On September 21, 1903, she became Mrs. Edward R. Loud. Her husband was a lawyer who attended the University of Michigan Law School after undergrad at Albion College.
Loud’s service to Alpha Chi remained a constant in her life. She served as National President from 1907-1910 and from 1912-1919. Her tenure was the longest in Alpha Chi history and her leadership served the organization well.
According to the Alpha Chi Omega website;
Many important decisions were made during her tenure. At the 1908 National Convention, a new position of chapter advisor was created, the secret motto was adopted, and the holly tree was selected as the Fraternity tree. The 1910 National Convention saw the Fraternity adopt an official flag, choose Hera as the patron goddess and establish the Hera Head for past Grand Council officers, which today’s National Council officers still receive. Additionally, the National Council Trophy was established, to be given annually, and the first history book was published. The first Daily Convention Transcript was published at the 1915 National Convention, where the extension policy was broadened and scholarship requirements for initiation were adopted. Despite World War I, the 1919 National Convention body voted to continue caring for 150 French war orphans as well as to establish a permanent endowment to the Star Studio.
Indianapolis News, November 3, 1906
She also opened the Presidents’ Conference at the 1914 National Panhellenic Congress, as the National Panhellenic Conference was then called. This account is from the Delta Zeta Lamp.
Delta Zeta Lamp, November 1914
In addition to her service to Alpha Chi Omega, she was a member of the Hannah Tracy Grant chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She also was president of the Albion City Hospital Board. After the death of her husband in 1928, she became a hostess at Detroit’s Harper Hospital Nurses Training School.
