Phi Kappa Psi 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.
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 mention of Wilson. On January 31, 1880 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 Kappa Psi’s Woodrow Wilson Leadership School, held in the odd, non Grand Arch Council year, 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. This year’s Woodrow Wilson Leadership School will take place in June at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.
To read The Shield article about Woodrow Wilson’s time in the Virginia Alpha chapter, see http://twitdoc.com/2OR9 . To read last year’s post about Phi Psi’s unique headquarters, see http://wp.me/p20I1i-1s8.
Woodrow Wilson, Phi Kappa Psi
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February 19 is also Founders’ Day for La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity, Incorporated, a fraternity for Latino students. It was founded at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York on February 19, 1982, by 11 undergraduate men, a faculty advisor, and a Cornell administrator. The majority of the founding members were in pre-med and engineering majors and they had little free time to devote to creating a fraternity of their own. But create it they did; in the ensuing years, the fraternity has grown to more than 55 undergraduate chapters and more than a dozen alumni chapters. Happy Founders’ Day!
© 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/
