Fraternity History & More

Founders’ Day Greetings to Beta Theta Pi!

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

On this day, August 8 in 1839, Beta Theta Pi was founded. It was the eighth day of the eighth month at nine in the evening, so technically, I am not late with this post. Beta Theta Pi’s convention is happening as I write this. Best wishes for a wonderful convention!

August 13, 1839, was Commencement Day at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Five days earlier, on August 8, at the first official meeting, eight young men established Beta Theta Pi, the first men’s fraternity founded west of the Allegheny Mountains. The men, “of ever honored memory” were John Reily Knox, Michael Clarkson Ryan, David Linton, Samuel Taylor Marshall, James George Smith, Charles Henry Hardin, John Holt Duncan, and Thomas Boston Gordon. The first three were members of the Class of 1839.

Miami University was founded in 1809 but it was 1826 before it conferred its first baccalaureate degree. From 1826 through 1839, there were 222 graduates, they were all male, as Miami was not yet coeducational.

The Beta Theta Pi chapter became inactive in January of 1848 due to the “Snowball Rebellion.” It was the goal of Erasmus D. McMaster, Miami’s president, to rid the institution of the fraternities and a decree came down from the university banning them from the intsitution. The students rebelled. It snowed heavily, as it often does in Ohio in winter. To protest his decision, the main entrance was blocked off and a dozen or more huge snowballs found their way to the first floor of Old Main. McMaster was livid! He was determined to expel the men involved. The second chapter of Alpha Delta Phi had been founded at Miami in 1833. At the time of McMaster’s edict, they were the only two national groups on campus.

On the following evening, the rebellion continued. Doors were nailed shut, and Old Main was filled with snow. McMaster cancelled classes for a week and began disciplinary proceedings. All but nine seniors and five juniors were expelled from the University.

Three of the men were admitted to Centre College in Kentucky and founded the Epsilon chapter. That spring, the two remaining members left. The Alpha chapter did not come back to life until 1855. Miami University’s decision to fire McMaster due to the loss in critical revenue resulted in a change of course for the institution regarding Greek-letter organizations. The story of Miami University’s role in the history of the fraternity movement is a rich one, but it will have to wait until another day. Happy Birthday to the first of the Miami Triad!

I love this map and it relates to Beta’s founding.This is what the country looked like in 1839 when Beta was founded. It’s from a copy of the Son of the Stars:A Manual for Pledges of Beta Theta Pi, by G. Herbert Smith, President of the Fraternity, 1947. The top legend states “The Fraternities in 1839” and the bottom one reads “the United States and Territories in 1839 when Beta Theta Pi was established showing the colleges with fraternity chapters.”

© 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 Beta Theta Pi, Miami University | Tagged Beta Theta Pi, Miami University | Comments Off

The Monmouth Duo of First Ladies and More

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

I’m on my way out the door without time to write a real post, but there are three things I want to write about.

Cyndy Bittinger, the former Executive Director of the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation, is an expert on Grace Coolidge. She recently took part in a symposium about the modern First Lady. The session is available on C-Span (http://www.c-span.org/video/?326800-1/modern-first-ladies-part-1). Grace Goodhue Coolidge, a Pi Beta Phi, was followed by Lou Henry Hoover, a Kappa Kappa Gamma. I like to think of them as the Monmouth Duo of First Ladies. Mrs. Hoover is also a discussed in the session. (Cyndy Bittinger, along with Mimi Baird, who is a CCMF Trustee, became alumnae initiates of Grace Coolidge’s Pi Phi chapter a number of years ago. For information about Mimi Baird’s book about her father, an Alpha Tau Omega, see http://wp.me/p20I1i-23X).

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For those who have a creative spirit which needs some nurturing, check out Arrowmont’s last weekend workshops of the season, October 22-25. According to my friends at Arrowmont, “You’d be surprised what you can make in a weekend when immersed in a creative group.” Gatlinburg, Tennessee is beautiful that time of year and even though Arrowmont is about 200 feet off the main Parkway in Gatlinburg, it is worlds away. You will have a wonderful experience, trust me.

See the workshops here: http://www.arrowmont.org/workshops-and-classes/workshops…

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Congratulations to my friends at the Phoenix Panhellenic Association for winning the Harriett Macht Outstanding Alumnae Panhellenic Award for 2013-15!! They are a hard working group of women and they do great things in the community, both as members of their individual NPC alumnae organizations and as an Alumnae Panhellenic.

Posted in Alpha Tau Omega, First Ladies, Grace Coolidge, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Monmouth College, Pi Beta Phi | Tagged Arrowmont, Cyndy Bittinger, Gatlinburg, Grace Coolidge, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Lou Henry Hoover, Mimi Baird, Monmouth College, Pi Beta Phi | Comments Off

Being a Proud #IAmASororityWoman

Posted on August 5, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Delta Gamma Fraternity’s “I Am A Sorority Woman” campaign is in full swing. This is the campaign’s third year and Delta Gamma hopes that the responses to the campaign can help address the stereotypes that are often associated with sorority women. Other GLOs are encouraging their members to join in the campaign. The campaign began August 1 and lasts the month.

Sorority women (or fraternity women as the case may be, but the world knows us as sorority women), can make a statement on social media, either as a tweet, Facebook, Instagram post or video, or in a blog post (I added that, but that’s what I do here on this blog). Use the hashtag #IAmASororityWoman. Check out DG’s blog which highlights the #IAmASororityWoman posts. It’s at http://dganchors.blogspot.com/.

The concept of the campaign was the brainchild of Delta Gamma chapter consultant Tallia Deljou during a 2013 meeting at the Delta Gamma Executive Offices. The campaign “challenges sorority women to think about the real intention of their membership and sisterhood, to show how they live those values day by day and to tell others how they create a culture of care around their loved ones.”

And just for fun, here are some past posts about notable sorority women.

Ten Authors Who Are Sorority Women (Hint – Caddie Woodlawn, Kinsey Millhone, Atticus Finch, Too), http://wp.me/p20I1i-1wp

Helen Marlowe, Tennis Champion, Zeta Tau Alpha, and Marine Captain, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1HE

SELECTIONS FROM THE EXHIBIT THE GREATEST GENERATION: A TRIBUTE BY CHRIS L. DEMAREST

Helen Marlowe, by Chris L. Demarest. See http://chrisdemarest.net/

“A Hot Pilot is Born” to “Hello Dolly” – a ΘΦΑ Life Well Lived, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1Ha

Ten GLO Authors for Children’s Book Week, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1Cb

Charlotte West (AΞΔ) and Lin Dunn (XΩ) to Enter Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1Ft

Celebrating Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, ΑΕΦ, and Mary Knight Wells Ashcroft, ΓΦΒ!, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1Mj

10 + 2 Sorority Women With Pulitzer Prizes, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1LE

Irvington, Indiana, and the Sad Story of Madge Oberholtzer, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1RY

R.I.P. Jerrie Mock, Phi Mu, the First Woman to Circumnavigate the World Alone, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1RL

Betty Buckley, ZTA, the Public Theater, and Sweeney Todd, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1QR

“Service in Common” on Memorial Day 2014, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1De

The U.S. House of Representatives and the Sorority Women Who Have Served, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1UR

Female U.S. Senators and Their Sorority Affiliation – 2014 Edition, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1UE

Jessie Wallace Hughan, Pacifist, Social Activist, and Alpha Omicron Pi Founder on AOPi’s 118th Birthday, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1Yg

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

About Dr. Joyce Brothers on Sigma Delta Tau’s Founders’ Day, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1xj

Dr. Joyce Brothers, 1950s

Ten Sorority Women From the Golden Age of Television, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1xM

Ten Amazing Sorority Women, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1sy

Sorority Women Writing Stories Whose Characters Are Sorority Women, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1tc

The Golden Globes and the Fraternity and Sorority Members Who Have Won Them, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1mU

On Sigma Kappa’s Birthday – a Wimbledon Champ Who Was National President, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1dm

For International Women’s Day, Another 10 Amazing NPC Women!, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1vi

Sigma Gamma Rho Founders’ Day and the Hattie McDaniel Cancer Awareness and Health Program, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1dH

11/22/1963 in Dallas – The Three Wives, One a ΔΔΔ, and the Judge, a ΔΓ, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1em

Emmy Awards and the Sorority Women Who Have Won One or More, http://wp.me/p20I1i-17T

Happy Founders’ Day, Kappa Delta and a Snippet about Olga Achtenhagen, the “Hiking Professor”, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1az

Olga Achtenhagen

Edith Head, Delta Zeta’s 1968 Woman of the Year and Today’s Google Doodle Honoree, http://wp.me/p20I1i-1bI

Nellie A. Brown, Tri Delta and Pioneering Plant Pathologist, http://wp.me/p20I1i-16t

E. Jean Nelson Penfield, KKG, and Carrie Chapman Catt, ΠΒΦ, the Monmouth Duo of Suffragists, http://wp.me/p20I1i-c2

“Baconian Biliteral Cipher, on the Estate of Colonel Fabyon,” National Security, and a Fraternity Woman, http://wp.me/p20I1i-Zy

The Tony Awards and the Sorority Women Who Have Won One, http://wp.me/p20I1i-QP

Miss USA – Sorority Women Who Have Won the Title, http://wp.me/p20I1i-RC

Mary E. Gladwin, R.N., Winner of the Florence Nightingale Medal and a ΔΓ, http://wp.me/p20I1i-Ow

Fraternity Women Who Were Lawyers, 1867-1902 (When Women Could Not Vote!), http://wp.me/p20I1i-KD

Madelyn Pugh Davis, ΚΚΓ, and “I Love Lucy”, http://wp.me/p20I1i-Sl

Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch, Settlement House Founder and Kappa Kappa Gamma, http://wp.me/p20I1i-y2

Sorority Women Who Have Won Oscars at the Academy Awards, http://wp.me/p20I1i-Ez

The 100th Anniversary of the Suffrage Parade, Sorority Women, and a Guest Appearance by High School Student J. Edgar Hoover, http://wp.me/p20I1i-F4

Maria Leonard, Alpha Lambda Delta Founder and Illini Dean of Women, http://wp.me/p20I1i-y3

And There She Is – The List of Miss Americas Who Belong to Sororities, http://wp.me/p20I1i-zK

World War I “Hello Girls” Led by a Gamma Phi Beta, http://wp.me/p20I1i-t6

Grace Banker

Doctors Who Wore Badges: Fraternity Women in Medicine 1867-1902, http://wp.me/p20I1i-tF

Jane Marie Bancroft Robinson, Alpha Phi, Active in Deaconess Work, http://wp.me/p20I1i-es

Dr. May Agness Hopkins, Zeta Tau Alpha, http://wp.me/p20I1i-pj

NPC and NPHC Women Astronauts, http://wp.me/p20I1i-le

Anna Botsford Comstock, Mother of Nature Education and a Kappa Alpha Theta, http://wp.me/p20I1i-bP

Anna Botsford (Comstock) 1874

Katharine L. Sharp, Library Science Pioneer and Kappa Kappa Gamma Grand President, http://wp.me/p20I1i-nq

Ivy Kellerman Reed, Ph.D., Tri Delta, Ardent Esperantist, http://wp.me/p20I1i-dj

Julia Morgan, Architect, Kappa Alpha Theta, http://wp.me/p20I1i-bY

Julia Morgan, Kappa Alpha Theta

Imogen Cunningham, Pi Phi Pioneering Photographer http://wp.me/p20I1i-eg

Ada Comstock Notestein, Delta Gamma, http://wp.me/p20I1i-bR

Miss Keller, Iron Dean of Westhampton College, and Her Role in AAUW History, http://wp.me/p20I1i-fd http://wp.me/p20I1i-nN

May Lansfield Keller, Ph.D., Pi Beta Phi

Three female architects who designed chapter houses at Syracuse University, http://wp.me/p20I1i-8B

Alice Duer Miller, Kappa Kappa Gamma, http://wp.me/p20I1i-9C

Carrie Chapman Catt, Pi Beta Phi, http://wp.me/p20I1i-4d

© 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 Fran Favorite | Tagged Delta Gamma, sorority women #IAmASororityWoman | Comments Off

Monday in GLO History Land

Posted on August 3, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

On Saturday, the Southern Illinois Alumnae Club of Pi Beta Phi met for a quickly arranged luncheon at a local restaurant. For most of its 24 years, the club has had a dozen dues paying members. That does not sound like much compared to larger clubs, but the club’s percentage of available alumnae to dues paying alumnae is about 30%. Of the less than 40 Pi Phi alumnae in the area, 12 of them paid dues. More than half of those dozen show up to our meetings and it’s always a different mix for each meeting. On Saturday, three of the six collegiate members living in this area joined us for lunch. They were from three chapters (Millikin University, University of Southern Mississippi and University of Richmond); they enjoyed meeting each other, too. Together they had the opportunity to see how wonderful it can be to be part of an alumnae club. We made them promise that they would join an alumnae club wherever they ended up after college. And I think they will!

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Last week, Alpha Kappa Alpha honored two national presidents, B. Beatrix Scott and Ida L. Jackson, with the unveiling of a historical marker in their hometown of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Scott served from 1925-27 and Jackson from 1933-36. Scott was instrumental in the founding of the sorority’s Vocational Guidance Project and Jackson founded the Mississippi Health Project. For seven years, the mobile health clinic traveled throughout the state.

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In this season of forest fires, I was fascinated to learn that Smokey the Bear (“Only you can prevent forest fires”) might just have been a Beta Theta Pi, if only he had enrolled in college. He had Beta connections. Kester Flock, who was a member of the University of Idaho chapter of Beta Theta Pi in the 1920s, was a supervisor for the U.S. Forest Service in New Mexico. He rescued “a black bear cub whose paws were blistered from the heat of a charred tree, he flew with the cub to Washington D.C. where it became the original ‘Smokey the Bear,'” according to a post on Beta’s Facebook page.

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On August 3, 1923, a fraternity man and sorority woman who were both initiated while in college became the President and First Lady of the United States. If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you should know who they are. (Hint – both were native Vermonters, both were born there and are buried there, although most of their married life was spent in Massachusetts. One is a Phi Gamma Delta and the other a Pi Beta Phi.) To read more about them see http://wp.me/p20I1i-1LW.

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And from the twitterfeed:

‏@SigmaNuHQ

2012 Talent of the Year @APatrickThomas (Vanderbilt) recently released some new music:

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I must note that a certain women’s fraternity founder, the first woman to enroll at Indiana Asbury College (now DePauw University) in Greencastle, Indiana, is very active on twitter. Upon hearing the news that a woman will be selected for the $10 bill, friends of said founder wasted no time in mounting a campaign. It would be wonderful if Bettie ends up as the lucky woman!

‏@BettieLocke

I would be so honored! #Theta #Theta1870 RT @Erin_MacMillan: Bettie Locke Hamilton for $10 bill

Posted in Alpha Kappa Alpha, DePauw University, Fran Favorite, Grace Coolidge, Kappa Alpha Theta, Phi Gamma Delta, Pi Beta Phi, Sigma Nu | Tagged Alpha Kappa Alpha, B. Beatrix Scott, Beta Theta Pi, Bettie Locke, Calvin Coolidge, DePauw University, Grace Goodhue Coolidge, Ida L. Jackson, Kappa Alpha Theta, Kester Flock, Patrick Thomas, Sigma Nu, Smokey the Bear | Comments Off

GLOs Relaying for Life

Posted on July 31, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Last weekend, my Facebook feed was filled with Relay for Life information. Two Pi Phi friends, one in California and one in Galesburg, Illinois, were participating in local Relay for Life events sponsored by the American Cancer Society. Those posts reminded me that I received a nifty bit of trivia from a reader of this blog. In addition, I have been on the accounting team at my local Relay for years (okay, it’s decades now) and I have seen the dedication of the Southern Illinois University Carbondale Greek-Letter Organizations in supporting the Carbondale Relay for Life.

Relay for Life started as a one-man event in May, 1985. Tacoma, Washington, surgeon, Dr. Gordy Klatt, in an effort to show support for his patients and raise some funds for his local American Cancer Society, spent 24 hours circling the track at Baker Stadium at the University of Puget Sound. “He ran for more than 83 miles. That first year, nearly 300 of Dr. Klatt’s friends, family, and patients watched as he ran and walked the course. Throughout the night, friends donated $25 to run or walk with Dr. Klatt for 30 minutes. His efforts raised $27,000 to fight cancer,” according to the ACS website. Out of that first event came the idea for Relay for Life. In 1986, with the help of Pat Flynn (“Mother of Relay”), 19 teams took part in the first Relay for Life team event raising $33,000. Klatt died a year ago on August 3, 2014.

Many colleges and university sponsor Relay for Life events and GLOs are a big part of the festivities. Teams dress up and decorate their team HQs. There are serious sides of the event – the Survivor’s Lap, the Luminaria Ceremony – but the spirit of hope prevails.

The fraternity and sorority community at Elmhurst College in Illinois has hosted a Relay for Life since 1995. It was called, “Walk for Hope in memory of Claire Bartels. Claire, who succumbed to cancer in December of 1995, was the wife of Ken Bartels (former Elmhurst College Elmhurst Vice President for College Relations), the mother of Amy Bartels Hatfield (Elmhurst College and Gamma Chi Sorority alumna), an employee of Elmhurst College, and an honorary member of Gamma Chi Sorority (a local sorority which affiliated with Phi Mu Fraternity). Claire was a proponent of brotherhood/sisterhood and the fraternity/sorority community could think of no better tribute than to create a community-based fundraiser in her name. To date, the event (now campus-wide) has raised over $477,000 for the American Cancer Society,” according to Elizabeth Doyle, Alpha Omicron Pi, Director of Fraternity/Sorority Life at Elmhurst College.

My curiosity about how much GLOs have raised during Relay for Life events spurred me to ask a Tri Sigma friend who works in the ACS’s St. Louis office, if ACS keeps track of such statistics. She was unable to find any breakouts per type of organization. If anyone has these numbers, please let me know. The ACS staff partner to the Carbondale RFL began as a student volunteer. She is an Alpha Gamma Delta. She provided me with the numbers for the last six RFLs held in Carbondale. During that time, the Southern Illinois University GLOs raised a third of the total funds raised in the last six years. Together, as a population of not more than 10% of SIUC’s student body, the GLOs raised more than $100,000. I find that impressive.

The Delta Phi Epsilon Relay for Life Team at the Carbondale Relay for Life.

The Sigma Kappa Team at the Carbondale Relay for Life. Although the event is always planned for outdoors, rain has prevented the Relay from taking place outside. I think it has been about 10 years since it hasn’t gone inside to the rain location.

Posted in Fran Favorite | Tagged American Cancer Society, Elmhurst College, Relay for Life, SIUC, Southern Illinois University Carbondale | Comments Off

Love Fraternity and Sorority Life? Here’s a Blog for You!

Posted on July 29, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Sometimes writing a title for the post is difficult. Today’s title takes the cake for lame, but it will have to do.

Thank you, Delta Gamma, for a wonderful visual on the difference between alumni and alumnae!

Thank you, Delta Gamma!

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Twenty-four years after his death, Dr. Seuss – Theodor Seuss Geisel, has another best-seller. The manuscript of What Pet Should I Get? was found by his widow shortly after his death. It was released yesterday and became the #1 selling book on Amazon.com. Geisel was initiated into the Sigma Phi Epsilon chapter at Dartmouth College. See http://wp.me/p20I1i-bh.

Theodor Seuss Geisel, 1925, while a student at Dartmouth (courtesy of the Dartmouth College Library)

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Two Chi Omega authors were in the news recently. Harper Lee, author of the award winning To Kill a Mockingbird, released Go Set a Watchman. Lee was initiated into the at the University of Alabama.

Ann Rule, true crime author, died this week at the age of 83. She was a member of the Williamette University chapter of Chi Omega. She later received her undergraduate degree from the University of Washington.

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I feel like the Gladys Kravitz of the GLO twitterdom. Whenever someone posts one of these graphics in order to provide reasons to join a fraternity or sorority, I try to use it as a teachable moment. After all, why would anyone use downright false information as an incentive to join a GLO? Another graphic has emerged using incorrect information. It’s the first time I’ve seen it. All three share the totally erroneous “all but two U.S. Presidents” statement (see http://wp.me/p20I1i-Vb). The top one also has the incorrect first female astronaut information, among other things (see http://wp.me/p20I1i-le for female astronaut/sorority women info).

Please help stop the spread of this incorrect information.

It joins these other two graphics which also have misinformation.

It really should be called the “No So True Guide” See the NIC and NPC facts below.

And here’s another graphic containing misinformation. I am not sure why providing the image of a red cup does anyone any good.

While some of these “facts” are true, others clearly are not true.

If anyone would like to create a terrific looking visual with correct information, it would make me very happy and I’d even find a spot for it on my blog’s homepage.

Posted in Chi Omega, Delta Gamma, Fran Favorite, Sigma Phi Epsilon | Tagged "all but two presidents", alumna, alumnae, alumni, alumnus, Ann Rule, Chi Omega, Dr. Seuss, Harper Lee, Sigma Phi Epsilon, Theodor S. Geisel, University of Alabama, Willamette University | Comments Off

There’s Nothing Like a GLO Convention!

Posted on July 27, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Summer is convention season for Greek-Letter Organizations and it has been for more than a century. In the 1800s, conventions tended to take place during the academic year or over the Christmas holiday. While many GLOs have different names for the event – congress, conclave, etc., the gathering is an opportunity for members, both collegiate and alumnae/i, to gather together, transact the business of the organization, plan for its future, and share fellowship. If GLOs have biennial conventions, there is usually a leadership seminar or something similar in the off-year. Those are equally as fun and educational.

In the next two weeks, Alpha Tau Omega and Kappa Alpha Order, two of the Lexington Triad will be celebrating Sesquicentennials. The fraternities turn 150 later this year, ATO on September 11 and KA Order on December 21. Sigma Nu, the third member of the Lexington Triad will celebrate its Sesquicentennial in 2019.

Kappa Alpha Order’s convention begins on July 30. It will be held in Roanoke Virginia, at the Hotel Roanoke. There will be a day trip to Lexington, where its founding campus, Washington and Lee University, is located. W&L was Washington College when the fraternity was founded. imgres

Alpha Tau Omega’s Congress will convene in Indianapolis next week. ATO was founded by three Virginia Military Institute cadets.

One of two cars, Lex and Rich, which have been travelling across the country. Chapter Presidents sign the hood of the car which visits their chapter.

Two cars named Lex and Rich have traveled across the country. Chapter Presidents sign the hood of the car which visits their chapter.

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Other GLOs have gathered this summer and here are some of the twitter posts about those events.

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The Delta Sigma Thetas have been meeting in Houston.

‏@dstinc1913

Deltas enjoying the beautiful Heritage & Archives display in the exhibit hall #DST1913 #DSTHouston

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The Phi Delta Theta Kleberg Emerging Leaders Institute included an ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. The Phi Delts support ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, because Lou Gehrig was a Phi Delt. The Institute took place at Miami University, where the fraternity was founded.

‏@phidelt

850 Phi Delts are about to perform the world’s largest #ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. #Kleberg

For the 2015 Kleberg Emerging Leaders Institute, the Phi Delts met at Miami University, where the organization was founded.

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The Alpha Kappa Alphas met earlier this month in Chicago and the town was awash in pink and green.

‏@akasorority1908

#AKA1908 collected 2,833 backpacks & 8,578 school supplies @ #AKA2015LS! WAY TO GO!! #AKAImpactDay

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The Kappa Sigma Conclave took place last week.

‏@KappaSigThetaNu

We begin Roll Call at day two of #KSConclave #FraternityStandard

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The Phi Kappa Psis were in Omaha, Nebraska for the 2015 Woodrow Wilson Leadership School during the College World Series and the attendees took in a baseball game.

‏@PhiPsiBGSU

Our brothers at the College World Series in Omaha for the Woodrow Wilson Leadership School #2015WWLS @PhiKappaPsi

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The obligatory dessert photo is courtesy of Alpha Xi Delta. Its convention took place over the 4th of July in Boston and fireworks were part of the festivities.

‏@GMUAlphaXiDelta

Awards celebration at #AxidBoston

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The men of Delta Sigma Phi were in New Orleans and took a convention photo. Convention photos are not easy to coordinate.

‏@DeltaSigmaPhiHQ

#tbt to Saturday in Jackson Square in New Orleans for our Convention photo! #DeltaSigNOLA

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It’s always fun when a famous member speaks to the convention body. The Kappa Deltas were proud to present and listen to Brooke Anderson.

‏@UDKappaDelta

Sister @BrookeAnderson is the keynote speaker for the session: Confidence in the Workplace! #ShineKD

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Conventions rely on a myriad of volunteers. National Council officers give freely of their time and conventions usually signal the beginning, and then, at a later date, the ending of their tenure in office.

‏@AEPhiLeslie

#AEPhiConv15 is in the books & I am heading home w/ a lifetime of memories from 4 years as @AEPhi National President!

‏@LaurenMGalley

Proud of my @AlphaDeltaPi sisters for raising over 1M for @RMHC ~ From our house to yours…#AzureOverAZ #ADPiLove

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‏@BrittanyShoul

AOII Foundation gave over $1M in funding this biennium! #AOIICONV2015

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And my favorite convention, since I was in attendance, was the Pi Beta Phi convention in Chicago. The last time Pi Beta Phi had a convention in Chicago was for its Centennial in 1967. The Edgewater Beach Hotel, also the site of the 1936 convention, no longer exists, but we had a wonderful time at the Chicago Hilton. I love the sentiment in this twitter post from Chi Omega’s Archivist, Lyn Harris. Our conventions are in alternate years and last year I lived the convention experience vicariously through Lyn’s posts. I’d love to be Lyn’s shadow at a Chi Omega convention!

‏@ChiOArchives

Best Wishes for a great Convention @PiBetaPhiHQ – My dream is to attend as Fran Becque’s shadow! #reachingnewheights

I also have to include this 2017 Convention announcement. It features former Grand President “Sis” Mullis handgliding. Yes, when she said, “This angel is ready to fly,” she did, indeed, mean handgliding. That is actual footage of Sis handgliding. It’s at https://youtu.be/EAvxtNOvEus.

Posted in Alpha Delta Pi, Alpha Epsilon Phi, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Alpha Omicron Pi, Alpha Tau Omega, Alpha Xi Delta, Chi Omega, Conventions, Delta Sigma Theta, Fran Favorite, Fraternity History, Fraternity meetings, Greek-letter Organization, Kappa Alpha Order, Kappa Delta, Kappa Sigma, Miami University, National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), Phi Delta Theta, Phi Kappa Psi, Pi Beta Phi, Sigma Nu | Tagged Convention, Miami University | Comments Off

A Rotary Kind of Week – Be a Gift to the World

Posted on July 23, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

This has been a Rotary week. Rotary, an international service organization, was started in Chicago, Illinois in 1905 (see http://wp.me/p20I1i-22E). Trying to get up to speed on leading a club of leaders (herding cats, anyone?) has left little time for my GLO hobby. On Saturday, I spent the day at a Rotary Foundation and Membership seminar. This week our club was visited by the District Governor. Luckily, I could be the absolute worst president the club has ever seen, and I am fully confident the club would survive, nonetheless. My sights are set much higher than that, so I am not worried.

An “Uh-Oh” award given to me at the changeover dinner where I was installed as Club President.

At the meeting, bright and early on Tuesday morning, Tom Guebert, the District 6510 Governor, mentioned that one of our club members was quoted in the latest Rotarian magazine. While I was at the club meeting, my Alpha Gamma Delta friend, who is also a P.E.O. and Rotarian, messaged me to tell me the same thing. Sad to say, the magazine was sitting on the dining room table in the untouched stack of Monday’s mail.

Aur Beck is a member of the Rotary Club of Carbondale-Breakfast where youll be hard pressed to find breakfast.

Aur Beck is a dedicated member of the Rotary Club of Carbondale-Breakfast (where you’ll be hard pressed to find breakfast).

And then a twitter post later in the day mentioned that Robb Knuepfer, the Rotarian on the cover of the magazine, was a fraternity man. Knuepfer served Rotary as a Governor for District 6450, among many other things. I suspect that many of the skills Knuepfer used in his Rotary service were built upon the foundation of his stint as president of the Denison University chapter of Alpha Tau Omega. As a college junior, he was awarded the Richard A. Ports Public Affairs Internship, which came with a summer working in the White House. As a college senior, he won the Thomas Arkle Clark Award, Alpha Tau Omega’s highest undergraduate recognition. As an alumnus, he served Alpha Tau Omega as National President (1990-1992) and Chairman of the Alpha Tau Omega National Foundation. The Rotarian article about Knuepfer, who after a long and distinguished law career is now a divinity student at the University of Chicago, is at http://bit.ly/1MpVBQy.

One of the highlights of my club’s District Governor’s visit was the presentation of this year’s banner. Rotary International President, K. R. “Ravi” Ravindran chose “Be a gift to the world” as his Rotary theme. For more information on Rotary international visit www.rotary.org.

District 6510 Governor Tom Guebert presenting the 2015-16 banner to the Rotary Club of Carbondale – Breakfast.

Posted in Alpha Tau Omega, Denison University, Fran Favorite | Tagged Alpha Tau Omega, Denison University, Robb Knuepfer, Rotary Club, Rotary International, Thomas Arkle Clark, Tom Guebert | Comments Off

E. Jean Nelson Penfield and Carrie Chapman Catt, Monmouth Duo BFFs?

Posted on July 20, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

One of the great joys I’ve had is meeting Greek-Letter Organization Archivists and Historians. We are kindred spirits. It goes without saying that we love our own organization the most, almost as if it were our child. Yet, I, for one, consider the other GLOs as I would my nieces and nephews. Family we all are.

I was elated when Kylie Towers Smith, Kappa Kappa Gamma’s Archivist/Museum Director, sent me this quote one of her summer interns, Cara Bargiacchi, found in studying Jean Nelson Penfield. It was found in the DePauw University Archives on the back cover of a booklet advertising Penfield’s lectures. Of Penfield, Carrie Chapman Catt said, “Mrs. Penfield is a rare personality, queenly in bearing, handsome in feature, dignified. She unites a well-bred intelligence with a natural eloquence, and a thoroughly trained voice. The combination has produced a woman whom all delight to hear and see. Her manners warm and her words convert.”

E. Jean Nelson (Penfield) as a student.

Eliza Jean Nelson (Penfield), who was born and raised in Greencastle, Indiana, graduated from DePauw University in 1893. While a student, she became a member of the Iota chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma. She attended the 1891 Panhellenic meeting in Boston, a precursor to the 1902 founding of the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC).

At DePauw, she had an editorial position on The Bema, the college newspaper. She was “always prominent in the literary social and fraternity life of the college. In May of 1892 while yet a junior she won the interstate oratorical contest which was held at Minneapolis After this triumph, as indeed it may well be called for she is the only lady in the history of the IOA who has been awarded a first prize after graduation,” according to a biographical entry she wrote for the Winning Orations of the Interstate Oratorical Contests with Biographies of the Contestants.

Nelson did post-graduate work in New York City. There she studied vocal music and founded the Musical Aid Guild for “poor students of ability which was afterwards absorbed by the Metropolitan Conservatory of Music.” She also “appeared upon the public lecture platform in advocacy of woman suffrage.”

In December 1897, Nelson married Judge William Warner Penfield and moved to New York City. She was active in church, social and community activities. She was a member of Sorosis, a New York City women’s club, as well as the College Women’s Equal Suffrage League, Daughters of American Revolution, and the Daughters of 1812.

Penfield served as National President of Kappa Kappa Gamma from 1900-02. In 1904, she served as Kappa Kappa Gamma’s NPC Delegate. She was also in attendance at the organizational meeting of the New York City Alumnae Panhellenic.

Penfield was one of seven women who chartered the Woman’s Suffrage Party of Greater New York. At Carrie Chapman Catt’s request she became the New York City Chairman of the Woman’s Suffrage Party. She served in this position from 1910-12. A 1914 issue of The Key of Kappa Kappa Gamma noted that she was “completing her law course at New York University, and will soon take her examination for entrance to the bar” In 1916, she began the practice of law.

Carrie Lane (Chapman Catt) enrolled at Iowa State University in the fall of 1876. She was an active member of the Iowa Gamma Chapter of Pi Beta Phi which was chartered on May 11, 1877, only 10 years after the fraternity’s founding. She was the first initiate after the chapter’s chartering. Carrie worked at the college washing dishes for nine cents an hour and in the library for ten cents an hour and she worked her way through college. She graduated from Iowa State in 1880 as valedictorian and the only woman in the class.

She utilized her Pi Beta Phi connections. In 1887, she wrote Pi Beta Phi’s Simpson College chapter offering to speak in Indianola, where Simpson College is located. She attended Pi Beta Phi’s 1890 convention in Galesburg and spoke about “The New Revolution.”

Catt was the President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1900-04 (and 1915-20, too). At that time, Catt lived in the metro New York area and it is without a doubt that Penfield and Catt’s paths crossed often. Penfield and Catt toured the west working for the ratification of the woman’s suffrage amendment. Together they helped found the League of Women Voters.

Carrie Chapman Catt

For more information on Carrie Chapman Catt, an early member of the Pi Beta Phi chapter at Iowa State University, please visit a post I wrote for the Pi Beta Phi blog. http://piphiblog.org/2012/01/09/chapter-loyalty-day-celebrated-january-9-in-honor-of-carrie-chapman-catt/ To read about her connection to Chi Omega, read a post by guest blogger, Lyn Harris http://wp.me/p20I1i-mw

E. Jean Nelson Penfield (courtesy of DePauw University Archives)

© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2015. All rights reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates – subscribe button is on the right. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory/

Posted in Carrie Chapman Catt, DePauw University, Fran Favorite, Iowa State University, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Pi Beta Phi | Tagged Carrie Chapman Catt, DePauw University, E. Jean Nelson Penfield, Iowa State University, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Pi Beta Phi | Comments Off

Baby’s Starting at Mount Holyoke in the Fall

Posted on July 17, 2015 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

“That was the summer of 1963, when everybody called me ‘Baby’, and it didn’t occur to me to mind. That was before President Kennedy was shot, before the Beatles, when I couldn’t wait to join the Peace Corps, and I thought I’d never find a guy as great as my dad. That was the summer we went to Kellermans,” said Frances “Baby” Houseman, as the fictional character opened the movie Dirty Dancing.

Baby was named for the first woman in the U.S. Cabinet, Frances Perkins, a Mount Holyoke alumna. Did Baby really go to Mount Holyoke in the fall as planned or did she run off and marry Johnny Castle, the bad boy dancer who stole her heart that summer? One does not know, because frankly, it is a work of fiction. I hope she went to Mount Holyoke in the fall, as her dad, Dr. Jake Houseman (played by one of my favorite actors Jerry Orbach) so proudly boasted. Mount Holyoke is particularly beautiful in the fall.

Pennant, courtesy of Donna Albino (https://www.mtholyoke.edu/~dalbino/)

While Mary Lyon, Mount Holyoke’s founder, was a student at Byfield Female Academy in Massachusetts, her mentor, Joseph Emerson, introduced her and Zilpah Grant to an environment where women were treated as intellectual equals. Both Lyon and Grant went on to teach at Adams and Ipswich Academies where they incorporated this element into their own teaching. It was during this time that the idea for a low cost female academy evolved. Lyon was unhappy that the expense of attending Ipswich was prohibitive for the daughters of many New England farmers. She began soliciting an endowment to establish a women’s seminary (a seminary in Mary Lyon’s day and age was a secular school for women, not the religious training institution of contemporary meaning). She wanted her seminary to be specifically for middle class women and to make it affordable, domestic labor was provided by the students.

Lyon traveled to New York and Detroit talking to fellow educators about her plans. In 1834, she left her job at Ipswich, started a committee, and hired an agent to help raise funds for her school. Two years and $15,000 later, Lyon’s dream became a reality. Chartered in 1836, Mount Holyoke Seminary opened on November 8, 1837 at South Hadley, Massachusetts. Training women to become strong teachers was its primary mission.

Mary Lyon’s last year of full-time teaching was 1847-48 and she died the following year. By the late 1800’s, it had become necessary for Mount Holyoke Seminary to evaluate its educational status in order to keep up with the changing American society. Mount Holyoke Seminary became a full-fledged women’s college. The admission standards were changed in order to attract a more diverse student body. Four-year graduation requirements were established. The college began hiring professors rather than teachers. Science and literary courses were added and new buildings were constructed.

By 1900, Mount Holyoke was a progressively developing women’s higher education institution. Mount Holyoke set the example that would be followed by six other women’s colleges: Vassar (1861), Wellesley (1870), Smith (1871), Radcliffe (1879), Bryn Mawr (1885), and Barnard (1889). Two of these “Seven Sisters” colleges were started as co-ordinates to men’s colleges. Radcliffe began as the co-ordinate to Harvard and Barnard was Columbia’s co-ordinate (today both have been subsumed by their coordinate). Vassar became coeducational in 1969.

Collegewomen.org is a newly launched website to chronicle the history of the institutions. For a short time in the early 1900s, Mount Holyoke was home to a group of local sororities (a post about them is on my to-do list). Wellesley has several Greek-letter “societies.” Barnard College, where Alpha Omicron Pi and Alpha Epsilon Phi were founded in 1907 and 1909, respectively, once had a thriving sorority system. In 1913, an edict prohibited the organizations from initiating any new members. The system died. Today a number of sororities have chapters at Columbia University. The photo below is from the collegewomen.org website.

Alpha Omicron Pi, circa-1910-1912. (photo from collegewomen.org)

Posted in Fran Favorite, Mount Holyoke College | Tagged collegewomen.org, Dirty Dance, Jerry Orbach, Mary Lyon, Mount Holyoke, Mount Holyoke College, Seven Sisters | Comments Off

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GLOs Relaying for Life

Love Fraternity and Sorority Life? Here’s a Blog for You!

There’s Nothing Like a GLO Convention!

A Rotary Kind of Week – Be a Gift to the World

E. Jean Nelson Penfield and Carrie Chapman Catt, Monmouth Duo BFFs?

Baby’s Starting at Mount Holyoke in the Fall

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