October 24 is Founders’ Day for two NPC groups – Delta Zeta and Alpha Epsilon Phi. The first was founded in 1902 at Miami University in Ohio and the latter was founded in 1909 at Barnard College in New York City.
Delta Zeta’s founders are Alfa Lloyd, Mary Collins, Anna Keen, Julia Bishop, Mabelle Minton, and Ann Simmons. The likely most royal of Delta Zeta’s members is Crown Princess Martha of Norway. She along with her lady-in-waiting, Countess Ragni Ostgaard, became members of Delta Zeta after visiting the University of North Dakota. In 1939, the two women were initiated in a ceremony presided over by Myrtle Graeter Malott, National President. Later that year, Bobye Lou Utter and Rena Charnley, members of the Delta Zeta chapter at the University of Pittsburgh, presented corsages to the Crown Princess Martha and the Countess during the royal’s visit to Pittsburgh. In March 1948,a newspaper account noted that the Pittsburgh chapter members were making layettes for Norway, a national Delta Zeta project.
Crown Princess Martha of Norway, Delta Zeta
In 1909, seven Barnard College students – Helen Phillips, Ida Beck, Rose Gerstein, Augustina “Tina” Hess, Lee Reiss, Stella Strauss and Rose Salmowitz – came together and created an organization spurred on Phillips’ inspiration. She sought a way to stay in closer contact with her friends; Alpha Epsilon Phi was founded in her room.
The seven shared their Jewish heritage. A second chapter was quickly founded two months later at nearby Hunter College. The founding chapter at Barnard was closed when the college banned Greek-letter organizations in 1913.
Today, Alpha Epsilon Phi notes that the organization is a Jewish sorority, “but not a religious organization, with membership open to all college women, regardless of religion, who honor, respect and appreciate our Jewish identity and are comfortable in a culturally Jewish environment.”
Alpha Epsilon Phi is the only NPC group that can claim a United States Supreme Court Justice among its membership. Ruth Bader Ginsburg became a member of the chapter at Cornell University. Another distinguished alumna is Nancy Goodman Brinker, Founder of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure and a former U.S. ambassador. Brinker was initiated at the University of Illinois.
