Alpha Xi Delta was founded at Lombard College in Galesburg, Illinois on April 17, 1893. In 1902, it became a national organization when it established its Beta Chapter at Iowa Wesleyan University. The history of the Beta Chapter eclipses the history of the Alpha Chapter by two decades. It begins on January 21, 1869 when it was the first chapter of P.E.O., a story I’ve told many times.
On Friday, January 6, 1905, the Theta Chapter of Alpha Xi Delta came into being. Zeta Gamma, a local society, petitioned Alpha Xi and Axie Lute of Beta Chapter spent two weeks in Madison inspecting the organization. Installation took place at the home of two of the Theta Chapter’s charter members, Alma and Lulu Runge. Fifteen women were initiated and:
the patronesses appeared upon the scene and afterwards an adjournment was made to the dining room. A five course dinner was served. followed by impromptu toasts….One of the pleasant features of the dinner was the greeting from the other Greeks of the University. Delta Delta Delta sent beautiful red carnations and ferns tied with the double blue and gold with a fraternal greeting. Chi Omega also remembered Theta with white carnations and ferns. Greetings were received from Phi Kappa Sigma and Sigma Nu. These kind words and deeds make Theta feel that she has a place in the fraternity world of the university. The college paper, The Cardinal, gave Alpha Xi Delta in general and Theta Chapter in particular a comprehensive and pleasing write up the evening before Theta’s installation.
After graduating from Wisconsin, Lulu Runge taught school for several years. After earning a Masters in Mathematics, she left Madison for Lincoln, Nebraska. There she became an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska, beginning her career there in 1910. She was an Alpha Xi national officer, too.
In a 1923 Quill of Alpha Xi Delta, the Rho Chapter bemoaned Lulu Runge’s membership in Theta Chapter:
We are loath to admit that any other chapter has a claim upon her. Miss Runge is assistant professor of mathematics at the University of Nebraska and lives at Rho chapter house. She is really the mother of Alpha Xi Delta in Nebraska because she founded the local which became Rho Chapter and has guided and directed many of our policies since our first days. Miss Runge is National Treasurer for her second term and we all know that our finances are in most capable hands. As a member of the National Council her ideas are always stable and practicable and she has done much to further the best policies of the fraternity. By no means a small contribution from her has been the installation of eight chapters all of whom have great confidence in her for the guidance she so freely gave when they begun their national life. A warm loyal friend. A true Alpha Xi Delta.
While at Nebraska teaching, she entered the Ph.D. program, but she did not complete the degree due to the death of her director, Dean Ellery Clark. When he died during the 1917-18 academic year, she withdrew from candidacy for the degree. However, she was on the faculty for four decades until she retired in 1950.
Margaret Bixler, a 1941 initiate of Rho Chapter, wrote about her memories of Runge:
Our Alpha Xi Delta sponsor was Miss Lulu Runge who was a math professor and also well known in the chapter. At meals, she would sit at the end of the dining table stirring her tea. None of us could eat until she started eating, and it seemed as if she’d never stop stirring that tea. One night I sneaked out of the house with a friend to return a fraternity pin to her boyfriend. When we sneaked back in the basement window, Miss Runge was waiting there and caught us. She didn’t penalize us – being scared about getting caught was penalty enough.
Runge died in Madison on April 24, 1979, at the age of 94. In addition to her membership in professional organizations and Alpha Xi Delta, she belonged to P.E.O. and Zonta.
