“We can conceive of no more fitting manner of honoring the early sacrifices of our Founders than to impress the new initiates with the deep meaning of fraternal duty and obligation through the inspiration of the initiation ceremony. In a day when the entire Greek letter system finds itself under fire from many circles, we place our unqualified faith in these men and those who will follow to carry on the traditions of XYZ during the next XX years.” Any guesses as to when this quote was written? Email me at my name at yahoo.com. Guess it correctly and a donation to the Circle of Sisterhood.will be made in your honor.
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The other day I wrote that Sarah Ida Shaw Martin would be one of the GLO greats invited to my “greats of GLO history” dinner. Mary Love Collins would also receive an invitation to that event. Mary Love was not a founder of Chi Omega. She was a builder and she had a hand in the growth of her beloved Chi Omega for decades upon decades. She was Chi Omega’s National President from 1910 until 1952 and continued her involvement in Chi Omega until 1972 when she died at the age of 90.
Mary Love Collins at her cabin in Pennsylvania with her dog, “Frolic,” c 1932 (photo courtesy of Chi Omega Archives)
My friend, Lyn Harris, Chi Omega’s Archivist, has unearthed a voice recording of Mary Love (as Chi Omegas called her) and it is thrilling to hear her speak. She sounded just like I thought she would! The recording is of the presentation of the National Achievement Award which was sponsored by Chi Omega for a number of years. The recipients were Anna Rosenberg, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Assistant Secretary of Defense and Edith Hamilton, Greek and Roman scholar. The presentation was February 22, 1951. The first voice belongs to Mary Love. Eleanor Roosevelt speaks near the end. https://soundcloud.com/user-423546134/1951naa For more background on the award, see http://wp.me/p20I1i-mw.
Anna Rosenberg, in 1945, was the first woman to the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Several of the other Chi Omega honorees received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Margaret Chase Smith, Sigma Kappa, and Margaret Mead were thusly honored, although Mead’s Presidential Medal of Freedom was awarded posthumously.
Last week the 2015 crop of Presidential Medal of Freedom winners were feted. Among this year’s honorees are several GLO alumni/ae:
Lee Hamilton, Alpha Tau Omega
Katherine G. Johnson, Alpha Kappa Alpha
Shirley Chisholm, Delta Sigma Theta (posthumously)
Stephen Sondheim, Beta Theta Pi
Steven Spielberg, Theta Chi
Presidential Medal of Freedom
© 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/
