From July 10-14, 2013, Phi Sigma Sigma members will gather at the 2013 convention and celebrate the organization’s Centennial. The convention will take place at the Crowne Plaza in Times Square. The festivities will include a trip to Hunter College, the site of the organization’s founding. Phi Sigma Sigma’s first convention also took place in New York City in 1918.
Phi Sigma Sigma’s founding chapter was installed at New York’s Hunter College on November 26, 1913. Its ten founders are Lillian Gordon Alpern, Josephine Ellison Breakstone, Fay Chertkoff, Estelle Melnick Cole, Jeanette Lipka Furst, Ethel Gordon Kraus, Shirley Cohen Laufer, Claire Wunder McArdle, Rose Sher Seidman and Gwen Zaliels Snyder.
The organization’s original name was Phi Sigma Omega, but it was discovered that the name was already in use. Five years transpired before a second chapter was installed. In 1918, the Beta Chapter at Tufts University was created when a friend of one of the founders expressed interest in the organization. A third chapter was chartered at New York University.
At that 1918 convention, founder Fay Chertkoff was elected the organization’s first grand archon. A constitution was approved and a Supreme Council was elected. The 2013 convention celebrating a century of Phi Sigma Sigma sisterhood will be, without a doubt, one of the most glorious in its history. Best wishes for a joyous and memorable celebration.
P.S. If you’d like to follow the festivities on twitter, the hashtag is #phisig100.
Hunter College in the 1920s
© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2013. All Rights Reserved.
