It is a picture taken on June 7, 1934 after an honorary degree was conferred upon Pi Beta Phi’s Grand President, Amy Burnham Onken. To Pi Phis and the NPC world, she was known as Miss Onken. The picture also appeared in the February 1935 Arrow of Pi Beta Phi. Unfortunately, only a handful of people were identified in the caption (“the rest are members of Pi Beta Phi”). In May of 1934, there were only three of the twelve founders living. Margaret Campbell lived in Monmouth. The other two were in Minnesota and Washington, respectively. I recognized Lois Franklin Stoolman to Miss Onken’s left. Mrs. Stoolman’s husband, A.W. Stoolman was a contractor in Champaign-Urbana and built many of the fraternity and sorority houses which still stand today. He also built the Virginia Theatre, named for the Stoolman’s daughter.
Dr. Thomas Hanna McMichael, President of Monmouth College, is the man in the picture. His wife, Minnie McDill McMichael, was a Pi Phi, but she is not in this picture; she passed away in 1929. The McMichaels were instrumental in bringing the Greek-letter organizations back to Monmouth College. Mrs. McMichael spearheaded the reestablishment of Monmouth College’s Pi Beta Phi chapter, the Alpha chapter, after she and her husband accompanied Clara Brownlee Hutchinson, a founder, to the 1927 Pequot convention. There they plead the case of Zeta Epsilon Chi, the local organization which hoped to bring the Pi Phi charter back to Monmouth. Mrs. McMichael died a short time after she coordinated the installation festivities. It was her fervent wish to see a Pi Beta Phi chapter back at its founding campus and she made sure it happened. This Dr. McMichael was the second Dr. McMichael to serve as the College’s President. His father previously served in that role.
The September 1934 Arrow contained this tribute:
That to Amy Burnham Onken, beloved Grand President. we not only acknowledge her superior leadership of our fraternity under all situations with deep appreciation. but we attest our admiration of her noble personality and her undying loyalty and devotion to the ideals, aspirations and projects of Pi Beta Phi . We also acknowledge the distinct honor brought to the fraternity through the conferring upon her of the honorary degree of Master of Arts by Monmouth College on the occasion of their 78th anniversary. This is the first time that such a signal honor has been bestowed upon a fraternity leader.
The report of the Monmouth Alumnae Club provided a glimpse of what went on that day:
June 7, 1934,was a great day for Monmouth Pi Phis, also for Monmouth College. An honorary degree was conferred upon our Grand President, Miss Amy B. Onken on Commencement day. Miss Mary Ross Potter, dean of women of Monmouth College, who was dean at Northwestern University when Miss Onken was a student there, on behalf of and on the recommendation of the faculty presented Miss Onken to Dr. T. H. McMichael, president of the college. He in turn recognized Miss Margaret Campbell, one of our Founders, who placed the hood on Miss Onken. thus conferring on her the honorary degree of Master of Arts, History was made that day as Miss Onken is the first national president to be thus honored by any institution. Mrs. Lois Stoolman, National Treasurer, was a guest of Monmouth Pi Phis for the day. Also there were representatives from Bloomington and Galesburg. Illinois, and Mt. Pleasant and Burlington, Iowa. At one o’clock a luncheon was served to some sixty Pi Phi guests and local members.
In the fall of 1934, the Alpha chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma was returned to campus. A local sorority, Kappa Alpha Sigma, became the Alpha Deuteron Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma on October 13, 1934, bring the fraternity back to its founding home at Monmouth College.
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