Fraternity History & More

A Super Sesquicentennial for Kappa Alpha Order!

Posted on December 21, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Sesquicentennial is a big word. It’s a fitting word because it means “of or relating to the one-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of a significant event,” according to that big internet dictionary in the sky. Kappa Alpha Order was founded at Washington College, now Washington and Lee University, in Lexington, Virginia on December 21, 1865. Today is the day on which the Order is celebrating its 150th anniversary of its founding.

Today, the fraternity is hosting a “KA Gives – Day of Giving to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Order.” A special website at https://kagives.razoo.com/giving_events/KA/home offers the opportunity to celebrate the Sesquicentennial in a special way. The giving tally is updated every 15 minutes. At 8 a.m. CST, the tally was more than $22,000. Every 50th donor wins an appreciation prize. At 1 p.m., it was more than $50,000!
Kappa Alpha Order’s founders are James Ward Wood, William Archibald Walsh, William Nelson Scott and Stanhope McClelland Scott. Samuel Zenas Ammen, an 1866 initiate, who had fought in the war, is revered as a “Practical Founder.” Ammen’s “constant refinement of the ritual and creation of the constitution, by-laws, grip, symbols and regalia of the Order, along with his lifelong commitment,” afforded him that honor, according to the fraternity’s website. Robert E. Lee, the President of Washington College when the fraternity was founded, was named a “Spiritual Founder” at the 1923 convention.

Its original name was Phi Kappa Chi. Phi Kappa Psi was the first fraternity to have a chapter at Washington College and that organization protested the similar sounding name. The fraternity took on the name Kappa Alpha in April of 1866. Although the organization changed its name early in its history, it is sometimes confused with Kappa Alpha Society, one of the Union Triad, founded at Union College in 1825.

Kappa Alpha Order is part of the Lexington Triad, the three men’s fraternities founded in Lexington, Virginia. Alpha Tau Omega and Sigma Nu were founded at Virginia Military Institute, in 1865 and 1869, respectively, at a time when VMI permitted fraternities to exist on campus. Lexington is the home of both the Kappa Alpha Order and Sigma Nu headquarters (ATO’s HQ is in Indianapolis).

© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2015. 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/

Posted in Alpha Tau Omega, Kappa Alpha Order, Kappa Alpha Society, Phi Kappa Psi, Sigma Nu, Virginia Military Institute, Washington and Lee University | Tagged Alpha Tau Omega, Kappa Alpha Order, Lexington Virginia, Sigma Nu, Washington and Lee University, Washington College | Comments Off

A Phi Gam Starts a National Tradition, Helped by His Pi Phi Wife

Posted on December 16, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

This year’s White House ornament honors the presidency of my favorite First Couple. It was during his administration that the White House Christmas tree tradition began. The White House Historical Association does a great job of telling the story of the first Christmas tree. (http://www.whitehousehistory.org/a-coolidge-christmas?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Tree+Lighting).

Christmas 1923 was a very happy time for the Coolidge family. Calvin Coolidge, a Phi Gamma Delta from Amherst College, and his wife Grace, a charter member of the Pi Beta Phi chapter at the University of Vermont, were the parents of two young men who were enrolled at Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania.

Grace Coolidge and Santa Claus. Photo by Harris & Ewing, photographer, courtesy of the Library of Congress

That Christmas of 1923 would be the last Christmas the four of them would celebrate together. Calvin, Jr., the younger son would be gone by Christmas 1924, dying of blood poisoning from a blister on his foot.

Posted in Amherst College, First Ladies, Grace Coolidge, Phi Gamma Delta, Pi Beta Phi, University of Vermont | Tagged Calvin Coolidge, Grace Coolidge, ornament, Phi Gamma Delta, Pi Beta Phi, White House, White House Historical Association | Comments Off

R.I.P. DeMarcus

Posted on December 14, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

The weirdest thing happened this weekend. It reminded me of how fleeting life truly is. On Saturday, I was scanning some slides, a laborious task, and I was shuttling between two laptops. I had my twitter feed open, but really wasn’t reading much. I saw this tweet and I did a double take.

ThetaXi_SEMO ‏@SemoThetaxi Dec 12

We are deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Brother Dmarcus Huddleston ΓΕ521. He loved @ThetaXi more than anyone and he will be missed.

DeMarcus Huddleston (Photo courtesy of the SEMO chapter of Theta Xi chapter)

DeMarcus Huddleston sounded so familiar. I had to stop and concentrate until I knew why I knew the name. He had come to the Rotary meeting on Tuesday morning. During the meeting, while the election results were tallied, I asked him to tell us a little about himself. After the meeting, I spoke with him for a while. He told me he went to Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO). I didn’t ask about a fraternity, I figured I’d ask that the next time he visited the club. We talked about the Boy Scouts and his job serving as head of the Boy Scout’s Kaskaskia District. He spoke about the effect scouting had upon his life. He was looking forward to becoming a member, and I was enthused by his youth and his excitement about becoming a Rotarian. Our club could use another Eagle Scout. I wrote him a note thanking him for coming to a business meeting and I promised that our meetings are usually a lot more fun than talking about the budget and income projections. I was hit in the gut by the news that he had been in a fatal automobile accident early Saturday morning. What a loss for all of us. My heart breaks for his family and friends.

***

Another twitter post gave me a link to an answer for a question which has been floating through my brain. Lyn Harris, Chi Omega’s Archivist, posted this tweet and recipe

‏@ChiOArchives

Looking for a 100-yr-old recipe for your holiday party?! Try this from Ethel Switzer Howard, author of the Symphony

This reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend about the menus of countless 1880s and 1890s events. They all seemed to have oysters on the menu. It just seemed odd considering that these events took place in the middle of the country (the west in those days). Oysters are an acquired taste and one does not find them on many event menus of today. A comment to Lyn about the frequency of oysters on the menu at late 1800 events brought this reply from the Phi Gamma Delta Archivist:

Cur ‏@PhiGamArchives

@GLOhistory @ChiOArchives US annual production spiked 1880-1910, making oysters cheaper than meat, poultry, fish. http://spo.nwr.noaa.gov/mfr584/mfr5841.pdf .

And so that answers that! Now we know why those early GLO events had oysters on the menu.

Posted in Fran Favorite, Theta Xi | Tagged DeMarcus Huddleston, Ethel Switzer, Lyn Harris, oysters, SEMO | Comments Off

4Σ + 2Κ + 2Φ +Α + Δ + Λ + Π + Ρ + Υ = 5 Founders’ Days

Posted on December 10, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Five GLOs were founded on December 10. The theme of the foundings is a common one in the history of Greek-letter organizations, “let’s found a society of our own.”

The University of Virginia was the founding campus of the oldest of the groups founded on December 10. The year was 1869 and five young men, the “Five Friends and Brothers,” met in 46 East Lawn. The organization they founded is Kappa Sigma. Its founders are William Grigsby McCormick, George Miles Arnold, John Covert Bord, Edmund Law Rogers, Jr., and Frank Courtney Nicodemus. The growth of Kappa Sigma is credited to Stephen Alonzo Jackson, an 1872 initiate. A Kappa Sigma national officer, Dr. Charles Richardson, a Fayetteville, Arkansas dentist, greatly influenced the world of women’s Greek-letter organizations when he helped found Chi Omega. With his guidance, Chi Omega was founded on April 5, 1895 at the University of Arkansas by Ina May Boles, Jean Vincenheller, Jobelle Holcombe, and Alice Simonds. He was known as “Sis Doc” to generations of Chi Omegas. The watch fob he was apt to wear had a Kappa Sigma badge on one side and a miniature Chi Omega badge on the other. The fob was not located after his death.

Dr. Charles Richardson, Kappa Sigma, and a founder of Chi Omega

On December 10, 1899, Delta Sigma Phi was founded at the City College of New York. It was formed because a group of friends tried to join an established fraternity. The friends were Christian and Jewish. They organized a fraternity of their own on December 10, 1899. The chapter was called Insula due to its location in the island of Manhattan. In late 1902, incorporation papers were signed in the name of Delta Sigma Phi. Basketball coach and author Clair F. Bee, while at Waynesburg College (now University) in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, became a member of Delta Sigma Phi. He still holds the the Division I NCAA record for highest winning percentage, winning 82.6% of the games he was head coach. In the 1950s, he started writing the Chip Hilton sports series of young reader books.

Pi Kappa Phi was founded at the College of Charleston in 1904. Its roots can be traced to a short-lived organization, Nu Phi, founded in part to help a group of men who were disillusioned with the role of college’s fraternities in campus politics. The Nu Phis sought to gain control of the Chrestomathic Literary Society. Nu Phi’s name stood for “non-fraternity.” When some of the Nu Phi’s proved disloyal, the men formed Pi Kappa Phi. Its founders are Andrew Kroeg, Simon Fogarty and Harry Mixson. The Ability Experience is Pi Kappa Phi’s own philanthropy. Chapters are encouraged to take part in activities serving and benefiting people with disabilities. These events include the Journey of Hope, a 4,100 mile bike ride across the country. Thomas Wolfe, author of Look Homeward Angel, was among the first alumni to be name to the Pi Kappa Phi Hall of Fame.

Eighty-one years after Pi Kappa Phi was born, Lambda Alpha Upsilon was founded at SUNY Buffalo. On December 10, 1985, 16 founding fathers came together to form an organization to provide support, both social and cultural, to Latino students. The organization’s founders are Antonio Adorno, José Betances, Miguel Buitrago, Manuel Cáceres, José Chiu, Ronald Ellín, Daniel Figueroa III, Victor Gutiérrez, Justo León, Julio Martínez Jr., José Núñez, Antonio Rodríguez, Daryl Salas, Manny Sánchez, José Soto, and Simón Vélez.

On December 10, 1998, a sorority for South Asian women, Sigma Sigma Rho, was founded at St. John’s University in the borough of Queens, New York. Sisterhood, Society, and Remembrance are cornerstones of the organization. The founders are Tejal Kundaiker, Payal (Suchdev) Walsh, Rinku (Suchdeva) Thomas, Priya Sahani Sood,. Vandana Kakwani-Pathak, Sonia (Sharma) Wadhwa, Dr. Nisha (Rana) Diler, Minna John, Dr. Lovleen (Kandhari) Sharma, and Mrs. Eshna (Firoz) Kalam.

Posted in Chi Omega, Delta Sigma Phi, Fran Favorite, Kappa Sigma, Pi Kappa Phi | Tagged Chip Hilton, Claire F. Bee, Delta Sigma Phi, Dr. Charles Richardson, Kappa Sigma, Lambda Alpha Upsilon, Pi Kappa Phi, Sigma Sigma Rho | Comments Off

About Alpha Omicron Pi’s Second Chapter

Posted on December 8, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Alpha Omicron Pi was founded on January 2, 1897 at the home of Helen St. Clair (Mullan). She and three of her Barnard College friends, Stella George Stern (Perry), Jessie Wallace Hughan, and Elizabeth Heywood Wyman had pledged themselves to the organization on December 23, 1896. That first pledging ceremony took place in a small rarely used upstairs room in the old Columbia College Library.

Celebrating a Founders’ Day on the second day of the new year proved to be a challenge for the organization, so Alpha Omicron Pi now celebrates Founders’ Day on December 8, Stella’s birthday through January 2 and beyond.

What I find most amazing about AOPi’s early history is that its second chapter was halfway cross the country and to the south, 1,300 miles away from Manhattan. Stella contacted Evelyn Reed, a classmate from New Orleans. Evelyn’s sister, Katherine, was a student at H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College. Newcomb College as it was known, was founded in 1886 by Josephine Louise Newcomb in memory of her daughter Harriott Sophie. In 1870, 15 year-old Sophie died of diphtheria. Her widowed mother was despondent and sought to create a memorial to her beloved Sophie. Newcomb College, the women’s coordinate of Tulane University.

On September 8, 1898, Katherine Reed became the first pledge of the Pi Chapter at Newcomb College. Not only was it Alpha Omicron Pi’s second chapter, but it was also the second women’s fraternity at Newcomb. Pi Beta Phi’s Louisiana Alpha chapter was established in 1891. “The little Greek community at Newcomb was very delightfully entertained at a charmingly original birthday party, given by the Alpha Omicron Pi girls, to celebrate the first anniversary of the founding of their chapter,” reported the Pi Phi chapter in the January 1900 Arrow of Pi Beta Phi.

Stella George Stern (Perry)

It might come as a surprise to many that one of Alpha Omicron Pi’s founders Jessie Wallace Hughan, Ph.D., a lifelong educator, was a committed pacifist and social activist. In 1911, her dissertation was published as a book The Present Status of Socialism in America. It was later published with a revised title, America Socialism of the Present Day.

In the book’s introduction, John Spargo wrote, “Her warm sympathy so ﬁnely tempered by her critical spirit, enabling her to see both the noble and the ignoble in just perspective, makes her a trustworthy guide through the labyrinthian paths which confront the serious student of American Socialism as it is to-day. She gives a bird’s-eye view of the movement, sketches the political organization, noting its weak points as well as its strong ones; problems in theory and tactics are discussed with candor and discrimination, and the position of the leading spokesmen of the movement stated in their own words or impartial condensations of them. Thus the student who wants to understand the issues involved in the constant and often bitter conﬂict that is being waged between the so-called ‘Opportunist Socialist,’ on the one hand, and the so-called ‘Revolutionary Socialist,’ upon the other hand, is now provided with a convenient conspectus of the entire ﬁeld of controversy.” The book is available online through the Hathi Trust.

In addition to being a founder of Alpha Omicron Pi, she was honored with membership in Phi Beta Kappa. In 1923, she was a founder and the first Secretary of the War Resister’s League. As a member of the Socialist party, she ran many times for office in the state of New York. All her efforts to be elected were unsuccessful.

Alpha Omicron Pi honors its four founders with named awards. The award named for Hughan recognizes the collegiate chapter deemed the most outstanding for the the two years between conventions.

Jessie Hughan at about the time Alpha Omicron Pi was founded.

Posted in Alpha Omicron Pi, Barnard College | Tagged Alpha Omicron Pi, Barnard College, Jessie Hughan, Sophie Newcomb College, Stella George Perry Stern | Comments Off

December 7, 1941 and the GLO World

Posted on December 7, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

December 7, 1941, is a day that has lived in infamy. About a week earlier, fraternity men and women were meeting in New York City at the first joint meeting of the National Interfraternity Conference (NIC) and the National Panhellenic Congress* (NPC). Likely some of the delegates had just arrived home when the news hit the airways that Sunday.

An article in the December 1941 issue of The Kleos of Alpha Phi Delta was entitled “Dominant Topic at National Interfraternity Conference Dealt With Fraternities and Defense.” Due to the efforts of NIC Chairman Lloyd G. Balfour, Sigma Chi, a joint NIC-NPC luncheon, sessions, and banquet were held.

Lloyd G. Balfour, Sigma Chi and NIC Chairman

In addition, more than 2,000 fraternity men and women gathered at the Commodore Hotel for a banquet. According to the article it was “the most representative gathering of college Greeks ever held…Delegates of the 59 national fraternities which make up the NIC and the 21 sororities which comprise NPC also carried on separate sessions, which were largely concerned with problems resulting from the defense emergency.”

A drum and fife corps from Cornell University opened the banquet. The flags of the United States, Canada, NIC and NPC were presented. After singing the anthems of both countries, Alpha Tau Omega’s national chaplain Rev. Paul Hickok, gave the invocation. During dinner, 150 members of the Cornell University Instrumental Club and Glee Club “provided music, both classical and collegiate. The individual star was N. Herrmann, Theta Delta Chi, a 19-year-old basso profundo, who fairly startled his audience by his rare musical ability.”** Kappa Sigma Lowell Thomas served as toastmaster. The guest speaker at the previous year’s meeting, Beta Theta Pi Wendell Wilkie, was introduced.

There were a number of speeches. One was extremely prophetic. Lynn Stambaugh, national commander of the American Legion, in a talk entitled “Fraternities and Defense,” made the assertion that fraternity men, “because they often are in positions of leadership, had a special responsibility to assist in the national emergency. He was emphatic in his statement that this nation is definitely in the war and that people should realize this fact and function accordingly. He called upon fraternity men to do their part in making defense efforts effective.” Did he know that the fraternity magazines of the late 1940s would be filled with pages of pages about the members who made the ultimate sacrifice and those who served admirably and returned home to get on with their lives.

My husband’s father, a Phi Gamma Delta, was in Hawaii that Sunday morning. He was a high school student; his father, a Sigma Nu and a career Army man, was stationed there. My father-in-law spoke little about that day until decades later, when our sons were doing a school project on World War II, and they asked him about it. He had kept them bottled up for decades.

While men across the country left college to serve in the armed forces, so did many young women, including many sorority women. Here are five women, two sets of sisters, belonging to the Macon Magnolias, Alpha Delta Pi and Phi Mu, who enlisted in World War II service.

Three Alpha Delta Pi sisters from the Kansas State chapter, Ruby, Laura, and Eunice Randall, joined different branches of service. Ruby joined the WAVES, Laura was a WAC, and Eunice joined the SPARS.

Twin members of Phi Mu, from the University of Maine chapter, Mary Joan and Mildred Lombard Chapman, were among the first women to take over men’s jobs at the United States Marine Corps Post Exchange at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.***

I would love to compile a list of the NPC women who have served during the World Wars. I have started a series of spreadsheets, but it a very large undertaking. I applaud the effort of Sigma Phi Epsilon men who have created the @SigEpsWhoServe twitter feed to remind Sig Eps of the members who served.

* Today it is known as the National Panhellenic Conference, but NPC has had several name changes since it began in 1902.

** N. Herrmann was William Edward “Ned” Herrmann who would later go on to work for General Electric as a corporate trainer. In 1978, he created the “Herrmann Participant Survey Form” to identify an individual’s thinking styles and learning preferences in accordance with brain dominance theory.

*** See http://wp.me/p20I1i-PI for a post about some Pi Phi WAVES who met Grace Goodhue Coolidge while training at Smith College.

Posted in Alpha Delta Pi, Fran Favorite, Kansas State University, Marine Corps, Phi Gamma Delta, Phi Mu, Sigma Chi, Sigma Nu, University of Maine | Tagged Alpha Delta Pi, NIC, NPC, Phi Mu. Sigma Chi, SPARS, University of Maine, WACS, WAVES | Comments Off

Alpha Sigma Phi’s 170th with a Price

Posted on December 6, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Alpha Sigma Phi was founded on December 6, 1845, at Yale University (it was then known as Yale College). The Yale of 1845 was worlds away from the Yale of today. In 1845, only a very small percentage of American young men (and a minuscule amount of young women) were enrolled in any form of higher education. Alpha Sigma Phi’s founders are Louis Manigault, Horace Spangler Weiser and Stephen Ormsby Rhea.

One of Alpha Sigma Phi’s famous alumni belonged to the Alpha chapter at Yale. Vincent Price, although known primarily for his acting roles, was an art historian and advocate for the arts. He gave countless lectures on art, amassed a large collection of works, and used any opportunity, including appearances on Johnny Carson’s show, to promote the arts.

Price was born on May 27, 1911 and grew up in St. Louis. His father was a Yale alumnus and his grandfather invented baking powder. It made his grandfather quite wealthy for a time, “and then he lost all his money in the crash of ‘92 (1892). I’ve never forgiven him for this, never. Because I should have been born with a silver spoon in my mouth,” quipped Price.

After college, Price’s father began and was president of the National Candy Company in St. Louis. His family was quite musical. Price’s interest in the visual arts was fostered because he “couldn’t tell what my right hand was doing to my left hand on the piano. They didn’t work together. And so I developed a love for the visual arts, and theirs was entirely musical. We had no pictures around the house at all, except one horrible sort of picture of some cows in a landscape and a couple of family portraits. My family apparently had no taste in who painted their portraits at all, and they were dreadful.”

In 1929, he traveled from St. Louis to New Haven. Price entered Yale “with a real interest and a real sort of feeling that college was going to give me a wonderful visual education. It really didn’t do that very much. Yale was at that time the old Yale, academic and scientific. And I went to academic, my father went to scientific, my brother went to scientific. And there wasn’t much interest in the arts, in letting the undergraduate really into the arts, because you had to be on the dean’s list to be able to elect courses. I finally was so discouraged that I made an effort and got on the dean’s list, so that the last two years I took almost entirely art courses. And in my art history course I think I got a ninety-eight or something, which is not bad. But it’s a game that I’ve always played all my life, of identifying art.”

In speaking of the professors who had an influence on his life, he mentioned “a man who taught a course in Shakespeare who was a very big influence on my life, and sort of put me in touch with the theater, which I didn’t really have. . . . St. Louis is a good theater town, but really being near to New York, and being in New Haven where shows were tried out, was very important to me, and certainly aimed me towards the theater, though I didn’t know how to get in. But two years after I got out of Yale I was starring on Broadway, so it worked out all right.”

After graduating from Yale, he taught at the Riverdale Country School and had quick access to the theaters in New York. Price said, “because I could go in for very little money and see all the plays. And then I went to the Courtauld in London and there I fell in love with the theater, and that was that.”

Price’s quotes are from an oral history interview with Vincent Price, 1992 Aug. 6-14, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

Posted in Alpha Sigma Phi, Yale University | Tagged Alpha Sigma Phi, Yale University | Comments Off

In the Land of the Illini Thinking of the ‘Cuse

Posted on December 4, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Syracuse has been on my mind lately. I’m not in Syracuse, but this view as I walked out the door yesterday morning reminded me of the quad at Syracuse.

The University of Illinois

The school’s colors even involve orange. And for many years both schools had Indians as mascots. The Pi Beta Phi chapter at Illinois was chartered on October 26, 1895 and on February 11, 1896, the chapter at Syracuse was installed as the next chapter on the roll call.

There is even an observatory, although I do not think this one has been moved as Holden Observatory was in 1991.

The Observatory at the University of Illinois

In trying to find out when Holden Observatory at Syracuse was moved, I came across a nifty photo essay about Holden (http://bit.ly/1I6Srf3). I also found that Holden was named in memory a Syracuse graduate, Charles Demarest Holden.

I looked to see if Holden was a fraternity man. He was. He was initiated into Psi Upsilon (see a post earlier this week about the Psi Upsilon chapter house) along with Charles Melville Moss. Moss married Frances Haven, a founder of Gamma Phi Beta. He moved her to Illinois and Moss spent most of his professional career teaching Greek at the University of Illinois. The Mosses are buried in a cemetery at the edge of the campus. Frances was instrumental in the founding of the Gamma Phi chapter at Illinois and their daughter was a member of that chapter.

I am here in Champaign-Urbana to work on the history of the Illinois Delta chapter of Phi Kappa Psi for the Society for the Preservation of Greek Housing. Last night I took a walk to see the progress being made on the renovation/restoration of the chapter house.

The home of the Illinois Delta chapter of Phi Kappa Psi is currently undergoing a restoration/renovation, hence the fence.

The photos would have been better taken during daylight, but I was in the archives until 5 p.m. at which time it was already dark!

While doing research in the Student Life and Culture Archives, I was able to see the exhibit of Fred Turner’s woodcuts. Turner and his wife Betty sent out numbered and signed prints of the woodcuts. Turner followed in the footsteps of Thomas Arkle Clark, Alpha Tau Omega, as Dean of Men at Illinois. He then became the first Dean of Students. He also served as National President of Sigma Alpha Epsilon from 1943-45 and as President of the National Interfraternity Conference from 1967-68. To view the exhibit on-line see http://archives.library.illinois.edu/slc/news-events/exhibits/woodblocks/

The Fourth District Appellate Courthouse located in the center of Mt. Vernon, Illinois. Woodcut by Fred Turner, it was the Turner’s 1957 Christmas Card. (courtesy of the Student Life and Culture archives)

Posted in Fran Favorite, Gamma Phi Beta, Pi Beta Phi, Psi Upsilon, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Syracuse University, University of Illinois | Tagged Charles Demarest Holden, Charles Melville Moss, Frances Haven Moss, Fred Turner, Gamma Phi Beta, Pi Beta Phi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Syracuse University, University of Illinios | Comments Off

Syracuse on My Mind

Posted on December 2, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

I am writing this post on the Amtrak train grateful for the wifi. Last night as I was getting ready for this research trip, when I should have been packing, I was jumping down a rabbit hole, courtesy of a New York Alpha Pi Phi sister. She posted an article from the Daily Orange. The article was about a Syracuse native’s instagram account. “A little over two years ago, 29-year-old Syracuse native David Haas created his Syracuse history Instagram account to share little-known stories like these. Haas posts photos he takes throughout the city that have historical significance, typically buildings and homes. The captions of his posts explain the story behind the photo, be it an anecdote or historical information.”

A click on the instagram account had me trapped. When I told her I found the site fascinating, she said, “Isn’t it? Was scrolling thru the pix! Wish I had taken the time to check them out while up there!” Me, too! The instagram account is at is https://www.instagram.com/syracusehistory/. Here are a few of the links about some of the pictures with Greek-letter organization connections.

The Alpha Tau Omega house at Syracuse University. Photo by David Haas.

An article about the Alpha Tau Omega house on Walnut Place appeared on the Exploring Upstate New York web-site. http://exploringupstate.com/the-history-of-george-bond-and-the-epsilon-phi-house-in-syracuse-ny/. That house is just down the way from the old Pi Phi house where I spent my college years. The three staircase pictures in the previous post came from the last days of it being a Pi Phi house. The Phi Delta Theta chapter now lives in 210 Walnut Place in what had been the Pi Beta Phi house since the late 1930s except for a four-year period in the late 1980s when it was rented to the Alpha Omicron Pi chapter.

When I was in college (when the dinosaurs roamed the earth), the Phi Delts lived in the old Wilkinson mansion. The Delta Kappa Epsilons now own the house https://www.instagram.com/p/p2S8wSFVsA/?taken-by=syracusehistory. During my years at Syracuse, the old DKE house was turned into the Alumni Center. I even worked there on occasion for the catering division of food service. https://www.instagram.com/p/4PX56DlVqT/?taken-by=syracusehistory

The Former Delta Kappa Epsilon Chapter House at Syracuse University.

I passed the Tri Delta house several times a day on my way to campus and it was visible from the north windows of the Pi Phi house https://www.instagram.com/p/yuadZllVpg/?taken-by=syracusehistory.

There is also a picture of the former home of Delta Upsilon Harley Crane https://www.instagram.com/p/0oN9NmFVlx/?taken-by=syracusehistory.

Thank you, David Haas, for bringing attention to these Syracuse treasures!

Posted in Alpha Tau Omega, Delta Delta Delta, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Delta Upsilon, Fran Favorite, Phi Delta Theta, Pi Beta Phi, Syracuse University | Tagged Alpha Tau Omega, David Haas, Delta Delta Delta, Delta Upsilon, Phi Delta Theta, Pi Beta Phi, Syracuse | Comments Off

Cyber Monday on the Way to Giving Tuesday

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

On this Cyber Monday, the last day of November and before December and Giving Tuesday, I am grateful for many things. I am grateful to the men and women who founded Greek-letter organizations, and the builders who came after the founders, and the men and women who still believe in GLOs and support them with their time, talents, and treasures. I am grateful, too, for those of you who read this blog.

I am grateful for the thousands upon thousands of young college students who are doing GLOs proud. The ones who are doing it right don’t ever get much press. All we hear about are the misguided ones who do stupid things, often in altered states, and give us all a black eye and a great deal of angst. Those are the ones who cause us, GLO’s staunchest supporters, to question the existence of GLOs. Here is a news story which will warm your heart. http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/freshman-year/frat-brothers-brighten-hospital-room-lexi-brown-little-girl-fighting-n468421

This weekend, I was also reminded of the “Power of One.” A high school friend, Doreen, with whom I’ve reconnected on facebook and had a wonderful visit with while I was in Florida last year, lost her husband to a brain tumor seven months ago. She posted a powerful story of a visit to WalMart. She didn’t post it to get kudos for her effort. She posted it because it had a powerful effect on her. In the midst of her grief in facing the holidays without the one she loved, in a random encounter while getting a shopping cart, she came to the aid of someone who is on the same path as the one she was on earlier this year. She saw a wife trying to pick up a few things at WalMart while her husband, his head bandaged after surgery to treat a brain tumor, was struggling to get him in a wheelchair cart. Throughout the journey Doreen and her husband took, she would remind us in her facebook posts that “Every Moment Counts” (‪#‎EMC‬). She took the time to touch the lives of two complete strangers, waiting for the couple to finish shopping so she could help them out of the store and then went to their home to help them get into the house. Doreen recounted the conversation they had at the couple’s home, “‘How long did it take for your husband?’ I knew exactly what she was asking… ‘Well,’ I said, ‘Richard was given 12-18 months but he only could hold on for six and a half. But you know…the months don’t really matter…it’s all about the ‘moments,’… making the moments you do have together count. I know it’s hard for you to understand this …but you and your husband have been blessed with a gift. He didn’t die of a heart attack, or in a car crash. God is giving you both the time to say the things you want to say to each other. The time to steal the moments to make memories with so you will have them for the rest of your life to visit when you want or need to.” She said she left the house quickly and dissolved into tears as soon as she was in her car. In the hubbub of Black Friday and Cyber Monday when shopping is the main focus, it’s good to be reminded that all the clothing, electronic equipment, toys, etc. in the world can’t make memories and be a comfort in times of loss. We are each other’s greatest need.

Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday. One of my favorite gifts to give is a donation in a member’s honor to a GLO Foundation other than my own. Don’t get me wrong, I often give gifts to the Pi Beta Phi Foundation in honor or memory of dear friends, but giving to other GLO foundations is just as good a feeling.

***

There were no winners in coming up with the year in which this quote was written, “We can conceive of no more fitting manner of honoring the early sacrifices of our Founders than to impress the new initiates with the deep meaning of fraternal duty and obligation through the inspiration of the initiation ceremony. In a day when the entire Greek letter system finds itself under fire from many circles, we place our unqualified faith in these men and those who will follow to carry on the traditions of XYZ during the next XX years.” It was written in 1950 and appeared in the Shield of Phi Kappa Psi. The 1950s are often thought of as the golden heyday of GLOs and this is a reminder that our detractors have always been around.

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