Alpha Omicron Pi was founded on January 2, 1897, at the home of Helen St. Clair (Mullan). She and three of her Barnard College friends, Stella George Stern (Perry), Jessie Wallace Hughan, and Elizabeth Heywood Wyman had pledged themselves to the organization on December 23, 1896. That first pledging ceremony took place in a small rarely used upstairs room in the old Columbia College Library.
Commemorating a Founders’ Day on the second day of the new year proved to be a challenge for the organization, so founder Stella George Stern Perry’s birthday, December 8, was designated for the start of a celebration. However, this year it was announced that henceforth Founders’ Day would be celebrated on the actual founding date. I apologize to my AOPi friends for having missed the message. In any event, I hope you enjoy some info about Bertha Rembaugh, the first woman to run for judge in New York City.
Stella George Stern
Bertha Rembaugh was a graduate of Bryn Mawr College. After graduation she enrolled at the New York University School of Law where she became a member of the Nu Chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi.
To Dragma, 1911
She was admitted to the bar and became first assistant in the West Side branch of the Legal Aid Society. She started graduate work at NYU in hopes of obtaining a J.D. She also was a part of at least two legal firms. Currier, Knowles and Rembaugh, of which she was the only woman lawyer, and Noel Rembaugh and Barber.
She also served a term as Grand Treasurer of Alpha Omicron Pi.
To Dradma, 1913-14
To Dragma, 1915-16
El Paso Herald, March 15, 1921
Bertha Rembaugh died on January 31, 1950 at the age of 73.
New York Daily News, February 1, 1950
