From October 26-29, 1921, the 17th National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) meeting took place at the Claypool Hotel in Indianapolis. The venue was located at the corner of Illinois and Washington Streets. The meeting was chaired by Ethel Hayward Weston, Sigma Kappa. She was the first NPC delegate to serve six years on the Executive Council.
Kappa Delta Elizabeth Corbert Gilbert wrote the Around the Congress Table – Personalities Plus section of the meeting recap. NPC was 19 years old at this point. It is fascinating to read this account of the “personalities” of the women who represented their organizations:
At the head sat the chairman, Mrs. Ethel H. Weston, Sigma Kappa, still the same quiet, retiring little woman with the very appealing smile but showing much more of her New England granite in her firmness in holding the Congress to order. On one side of her sat the secretary. Mrs. N. L. McCausland, Jr., Alpha Omicron Pi, and on the other Miss Alpha Burkart, Zeta Tau Alpha, who served as treasurer for Dr. Hopkins. Mrs. McCausland, always insisted on knowing exactly what was said, so the congress minutes promise to be absolutely correct this year. Her sense of humor was very keen and injected much amusement into otherwise dry business.
Dr, Hopkins,* Zeta Tau Alpha, has so long been a dominant figure in the Congress that her presence was greatly missed. Miss Burkart, Zeta Tau Alpha. though new at the game, did not miss a trick and served as an able substitute.
There were several other new faces about the table. The new delegates are always rather at a disadvantage, not knowing the intimate procedure of years past, but they live and learn quickly. Among these were Delta Gamma’s national vice president, Mrs. Arthur H. Vandenberg, a woman so attractively gowned as she is personally pleasing. She was a former newspaper woman and served on the press committee for the Congress (NPC was then a congress rather than a conference). Alpha Gamma Delta was represented by a former national president who now serves as national treasurer, Mrs. May Willis Slocum. She is a business woman and brought a well-trained mind to bear on the various questions. Miss Irma Tapp, national inspector for Alpha Delta Pi, was one of those who did not say much but who was taking it all in. So also was Mrs. Gertrude McElfresh, Delta Zeta, a tall, dignified, gray-haired young woman, who came to the Congress with the express purpose of taking from it all she could possibly gain for the good of national Delta Zeta.
Mrs. Wm. Hudson, national president of Delta Delta Delta, while not a stranger to N.P.C. served as delegate for the first time. She was about the busiest person at the Congress for some time between the close of the afternoon session and midnight she would have to catch a train to Greencastle, her home, where she has a three year old daughter for whose care she would have to arrange for the next day. Despite all sorts of annoyances she was always smiling. Unfortuantely, Miss Amy Comstock, Alpha Phi’s delegate, was taken ill the second day and so the Congress missed her fair-minded discussions. Mrs. W. H. Ives, Alpha Phi’s national president, was an interesting substitute, however, since she acts as secretary of the Republican women’s executive committee of New York state.
The ‘old faithfuls’ were Dr. May Keller, president emeritus of Pi Beta Phi and the diminutive dean of Westhampton College, Richmond, VA; Miss L. Pearle Green, the capable executive secretary-editor of Kappa Alpha Theta; Mrs. Parke R. Kolbe, former president of Kappa Kappa Gamma and now business manager of The Key, who has known, and has been known in National Panhellenic Congress business for years past; Miss Lillian Thompson, Gamma Phi Beta’s ‘veteran delegate,’ who has known the Congress since its infancy, who, seemingly, has never forgotten anything that ever happened and who could race an expert stenographer when she gets warmed up to her subject; Mrs. Anna Knote, national president of Alpha Xi Delta, a very lovable, quiet, soft spoke, but withal, positive delegate; Mrs. Frank A. Fall, long the representative of Alpha Chi Omega, who has made a name for herself in 1914 when she successfully managed the Congress meeting in New York; Mrs. Mary C. Love Collins, Chi Omega’s national president, to whom everyone refers nearly every decision and who is practically the legal adviser of National Panhellenic Congress; Miss Nellie Hart, former national president of Phi Mu and delegate for many years, who charms the Congress with her southern accent and who, as long standing chairman of the extension committee pleads anew each year the cause of petitioning groups; and Kappa Delta’s Elizabeth Corbett Gilbert, retired national president, and National Panhellenic Congress delegate for six years.
The Claypool, Indianapolis
May Lansfield Keller, Ph.D., Pi Beta Phi
Lillian Thompson, a member of Gamma Phi Beta’s second chapter at the University of Michigan, was Gamma Phi’s National Panhellenic Conference Delegate for 34 years. She served as Chairman of the 1913 meeting.
Mary Love Collins, 1914
L. Pearle Green, Kappa Alpha Theta
Lydia Voris Kolbe, Kappa Kappa Gamma
Nellie Hart, Phi Mu
*For more information on the fascinating May Agness Hopkins, see http://wp.me/p20I1i-pj
© 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/
