All weekend, I have been jumping between projects. I’ve been writing my talk for the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis Alumnae Panhellenic (http://wp.me/s20I1i-indy). The celebration is Sunday, October 12, 2014, and if you haven’t reserved a spot, you might still have a chance to join in this historic event. The title of my talk is “The Importance of Indiana.” Of course I didn’t have anything prepared when I chose that title, but I knew I could work with it. It has been fun because Indiana is very important in the history of the women’s fraternity system, and not just because Kappa Alpha Theta and Alpha Chi Omega were founded in the state. That story is just the tip of the iceberg.
Part of my weekend was spent try to give a final proofing to a history of the Gamma Mu chapter of Sigma Nu. It is a project sponsored by the Society for the Preservation of Greek Housing (SPGH). In 2000, the SPGH, in conjunction with the Student Life and Cultural Archival Program, began a project to document the history of the fraternities and sororoities at the University of Illinois. The SPGH hopes to complete a chapter history for each social Greek-letter organization on the campus. The histories are available on line at http://archives.library.illinois.edu/slc/researchguides/fraternitychapterhistory/
So far these organizations have been chronicled:
Alpha Delta Pi Alpha Gamma Delta Alpha Phi Alpha Tau Omega Chi Omega Delta Tau Delta FarmHouse Kappa Alpha Theta* Kappa Kappa Gamma Pi Beta Phi* Sigma Chi* Sigma Phi Delta*I wrote these three. I suspect Sigma Nu will join the list of available pdfs in the next few weeks.
It has been so much fun to learn more about the history of Sigma Nu as well as the University of Illinois. And I love it when I find facts having to do with Pi Beta Phi. Sigma Nu’s current house on Pennsylvania Avenue, near the President’s house, was built by A.W. Stoolman. Stoolman was the husband of one of Pi Beta Phi’s Grand Treasurers, Lois Franklin Stoolman. He also built the Virginia Theater in Champaign – that story is at http://wp.me/p20I1i-Jm.
During the World War I years, before the Sigma Nu chapter owned a home of its own, the chapter found itself without a house, because they didn’t know who would be back in the fall and who would be in the armed forces. The landlord leased their home to someone else. Luckily, the Pi Phis had just moved into their present home on South Wright Street and had their old home available. That house was rented to the Sigma Nus for a time. I also discovered that my husband’s grandfather was a Sigma Nu. A career Army man, he was in the list of Sigma Nus who perished in World War II.
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Speaking of Sigma Nu….My friend Kevin Hunsperger, morning anchor at WSIL-TV in Southern Illinois, reflects on his role as a founding father of the Southeast Missouri State University chapter of Sigma Nu. His wife is an Alpha Xi Delta, for those of you who know the story of the early Sigma Nu – Alpha Xi Delta connection. His chapter is coming up on its 20th anniversary and Kevin talks about his experience at http://www.my123cents.com/2014/09/love-truth-honor.html.
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My twitter feed tells me it’s Mountain Day for both Mount Holyoke College (my daughter’s Alma Mater) and Smith College (my son’s employer).
.@mtholyoke — It’s your Mountain Day? It’s ours, too! See you at @Herrells, and in the hills. #twicethefun #SmithMtnDay
I am not sure how many times over the past 130+ years the two Mountain Days have fallen on the same date, but I am sure it’s not a common occurrence. For more about Mountain Days, see http://wp.me/p20I1i-nO
And as always, thanks for reading my blog and for letting others know about it. I appreciate it!
(c) Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2014. 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/
