Theta Chi Fraternity was founded on April 10, 1856 at Norwich University, in Norwich, Vermont. Frederick Norton Freeman and Arthur Chase, military cadets, met in Freeman’s room in Norwich’s Old South Barracks. After taking an oath, they declared each other “true and accepted members” of the Society. Chase became President and Freeman Secretary. The next evening two more cadets – Edward Bancroft Williston and Lorenzo Potter – joined the order.
Theta Chi’s Beta Chapter at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was installed on December 13, 1902. Other chapters quickly followed. The Alpha chapter lasted until 1960 when Norwich disbanded all its fraternities.
Robert Liston Irish was an 1885 initiate of the Alpha Chapter. He was “initiated in the room in the Barracks set aside for the use of Alpha Chapter by the Norwich University authorities,” according to an article in a 1937 Rattle of Theta Chi. He graduated in 1889 with a degree in chemistry. A year later he earned an M.A. from Norwich. He taught at his alma mater for a short time “before entering business activities in Vermont and Brooklyn. Finally in 1899 he achieved an M.D. degree from the Bellevue Medical College.” He also served as a Trustee at Norwich University from 1916-31.
Dr. Irish established a medical practice in New York City. He served a stint as the state examiner of lunacy. In 1931, he was honored by his fraternity after decades of service, including installing the first Theta Chi chapter on the west coast at the University of California – Berkeley in November 1913.
In the summer of 1928, he was on the west coast and attended a banquet hosted by the San Francisco alumni. It was his first visit to San Francisco since he installed the chapter at Stanford in 1920. When it was Dr. Irish’s turn to speak, he “responded to the tributes with memories of the earlier efforts of the Fraternity in California and he proposed an eloquent toast to Theta Chi on the Pacific Coast which was drunk with relish. Harking back to the supreme crisis of the Fraternity, he began to build it anew, brick by brick, in his memory. He saw again the temporary obstacles to expansion and the triumph of strong leadership. In conclusion, he expressed his pride in the far western units of the 45-link chain which now makeeth whole.” During that trip, he toured Berkeley and met with the chapter there. Then he (and hopefully his wife Kathleen) left for six weeks in the Hawaiian Islands.
The December 1931 Rattle of Theta Chi, included this tribute to Dr. Irish:
“For many years the title of ‘The Grand Old Man of Theta Chi’ has been given by common consent to Dr. Robert L. Irish, Norwich ’89. That title now become official in accordance with the following resolution passed unanimously by the National Council:
Whereas: Brother Robert L. Irish has been a member of Theta Chi Fraternity from 1885, and since 1911, when he became a member of its National Council, has rendered conspicuous and distinguished service to the fraternity and its membership, serving on that body for twenty consecutive years, four of which as national president, three as national treasurer, and the remaining ten as national counselor, and who, especially in the early days of expansion, through visitation, information, and inspiration instilled into the heart and minds of the younger chapters and their undergraduate members the spirit and the ideals of our fraternity, and how at the expiration of his tenth biennial term, in view of certain re-election, voluntarily resigned from the National Council for the sole purpose of permitting others to serve the fraternity he had nurtured and loved so well. Now, therefore be it
Resolved: That the National Council of Theta Chi Fraternity give due recognition to the continuing power of his idealistic and unselfish service by conferring upon him the title of ‘The Grand Old Man of Theta Chi,’ and be it further
Resolved: That the appreciation of the Theta Chi Fraternity be expressed to him through its National Council at this meeting held in the City of New York, November 28, 1931. Be it further
Resolved: That these resolutions be entered upon the minutes of the National Council and published in The Rattle of Theta Chi.
Robert Liston Irish, M.D.
Dr. Irish died on June 6, 1937. He was “probably known by more members of the fraternity than any other Theta Chi and was held in affection esteem universally,” according to an article in The Rattle of Theta Chi.
© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2016. 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.
