After graduation from high school in Machias, Maine, in 1899, Elydia Foss (Shipman) enrolled at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. She became a member of Sigma Kappa in the fall of 1900. After two years at Colby, she was called home because of her father’s health. She taught school for two years and then returned to her studies, this time a Boston University.
There, she met a group of women who belonged to a local sorority. Xi Psi, which had been founded in 1900. She was asked to become a member. Instead, she told them about Sigma Kappa. After much conversation, some letter writing, and much deliberation, Sigma Kappa extended an invitation for the local to become the first chapter of Sigma Kappa outside of the Colby campus.
The Delta Chapter of Sigma Kappa was installed on March 7, 1904 when 28 members of Xi Psi were initiated. A banquet took place at the Hotel Bellevue in Boston. Addie Lakin, Evaline Salsman, and Elaine Wilson, actives from the Alpha Chapter installed Delta Chapter. Founder Louise Helen Coburn was in attendance.
Delta was the first chapter in which Shipman had a role in establishing, but it was not the last. She served as Extension Chairman from 1905-08. She played a major role in the establishment of the Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, and Kappa chapters.
She also helped established the Sigma Kappa Triangle and was on the first editorial board. She also served as Business Manager.
After 10 years teaching school in New Jersey, she enrolled at George Washington University where she earned a Master’s degree. She was also active with the chapter there. When she married Bertram Francis Shipman on Tuesday January 23, 1917, in Washington D.C., the chapter was invited, and they “enjoyed all the pleasant excitement that goes with weddings, with music by our girls and the wedding cake boxes tied with lavender and maroon.’
The Shipmans had four children, two boys and two girls. The oldest daughter, Elizabeth “Betty” became a member of the Rho Chapter at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College.
Elydia Foss Shipman was a force of nature. She kept herself very busy with her writing career, Sigma Kappa activities, and her community involvement. While living in New York City in the 1920s, she helped raise funds for the Panhellenic House residence for NPC women. She collected gifts for the Maine Mission and made sure they arrived.
She was a writer and began a journalism school before the field was taught in colleges. Shipman reported, taught, and wrote prose and poetry. She even copyrighted a song. In an article in the Sigma Kappa Triangle she is described as:
As a friend, Elydia is most engaging and enjoyable. She is able to project her keen mind to the point of even understanding the viewpoint of those who disagree with her. A keen sense of humor which is the spice of imagination even permits her to laugh at herself sometimes. She is self-expressive yet does not at all inhibit or repress others. She is so dynamic that she can plan and execute twenty steps while most of us are trying to make one decision about what to do first. She has a spirit that soars, a pen that sings, a heart that understands, and a faith that endures. She is a wonderful friend as well as wife, writer, citizen, and executive. I know, for I have been closely associated with her over a span of twenty years. Best of all she is a fine mother and the prospects of seeing her eldest daughter become a Sigma Kappa will fulfill one of the deepest and fondest dreams of her life.
Shipman and her daughter were in attendance on the 50th anniversary of the Delta Chapter in 1954.
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