Almost six years after Pi Beta Phi was founded at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois on April 28, 1867, the Kansas Alpha chapter at the University of Kansas was chartered.
Between the two dates, there were several other chapters founded including the chapter at Lombard College in Galesburg, Illinois, which was founded on June 22, 1872. Among the charter members of the Lombard chapter was Sara Richardson. Sara grew up in Wisconsin, but her family moved to Lawrence, Kansas in 1870. Sara’s sister, Flora, attended the University of Wisconsin and Lombard College for a short while, until she enrolled at Kansas University.
When Sara Richardson heard that a chapter of Beta Theta Pi was being formed at Kansas, she encouraged Flora, along with her other sisters, Alma and May, to form a chapter of Pi Beta Phi. The three Richardson sisters gathered a few friends and on April 1, 1873, the Kansas Alpha Chapter was established.
Flora Richardson (Colman) wearing her arrow
Flora was a junior when she enrolled at KU. She was a member of Oread Literary Society, and she collected bugs for what would be KU’s first entomological collection.
A member of the Class of 1873, she graduated at the top of her class of four. She was the University’s first female graduate as well as its first valedictorian. The events leading up to the first KU graduation rivaled that of the well-established eastern schools. There was a Class Day celebration and Flora and two of the men gave orations. The third male graduate was an engineer and was excused from the oratory exercise. That evening the graduates were introduced and their biographies were read. The senior class, represented by Flora, passed the proverbial torch to the junior class, all of whom were on the stage. The commencement took place on June 11, 1873 and the festivities were held in the unfinished chapel.
Flora taught in Kanwaka, Kansas until she married Osgood Andrus Colman on Christmas Day 1875 at the home of her parents. She earned a master’s degree in 1876, the year her sister May graduated. Alma graduated in 1879. The Colmans had seven children – Alice, Nellie, Minnie, Fred, Clara, Asa, and Ralph. Many of the Colman’s descendants have been Jayhawks who can trace their KU lineage to the first female graduate and valedictorian.
The Richardson sisters are forever connected to Pi Phi’s time-honored tradition, the Cookie Shine. It was at a reception to honor Sara Richardson for her help in establishing the KU chapter that Chancellor John Fraser called the event a “Cookie Shine.” The term spread like wildfire throughout the fraternity and has been a loved tradition among Pi Phis since that June night in 1873.
The Colmans lived in Lawrence, where Flora was involved in community organizations. When she died in 1924, her daughter Nellie wrote in her obituary:
There has been no movement for the benefit of her community or for women and children that did not receive her ardent support. Women’s suffrage, the women’s rest room, the various plans to provide high school privileges for rural pupils, and the farm bureau for rural women each in their turn were things she was untiring in her efforts to secure.
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