U.S. PRESIDENTS AND FRATERNITY MEN – FIRST LADIES AND SORORITY WOMEN

Posted on August 14, 2012 by Fran

Ever wonder which Presidents belonged to fraternities? Or which First Ladies were in women’s fraternities/sororities? Or which Presidential offspring belong to these organizations? 

National Panhellenic Conference women who have served as First Lady

Lucy B. Hayes, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Ohio Wesleyan College, Honorary member

Grace Goodhue Coolidge, Pi Beta Phi, University of Vermont, charter member 

Lou Henry Hoover, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Stanford University

Barbara Pierce Bush, Pi Beta Phi, Texas A&M, Alumna initiate (post-White House years)

Laura Welch Bush, Kappa Alpha Theta, Southern Methodist University

National Pan-Hellenic Council women who have served as First Lady

Eleanor Roosevelt, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Honorary member

Fraternity men who have served as President of the United States 

Thomas Jefferson, Flat Hat Club (F.H.C. Society), College of William and Mary*

Rutherford B. Hayes, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Honorary member

James A. Garfield, Delta Upsilon, Williams College

Chester A. Arthur, Psi Upsilon, Union College

Grover Cleveland, Sigma Chi, Honorary member

Benjamin Harrison, Phi Delta Theta, Miami University and Delta Chi, University of Michigan

William McKinley, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Mount Union College

Theodore Roosevelt, Delta Kappa Epsilon and Alpha Delta Phi, Harvard University

William Howard Taft, Psi Upsilon, Yale University

Woodrow Wilson, Phi Kappa Psi, University of Virginia

Calvin Coolidge, Phi Gamma Delta, Amherst College

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Alpha Delta Phi, Harvard University**

Harry S Truman, Lambda Chi Alpha, Honorary member (#213 on the University of Missouri chapter roll. Invitation accepted July 17, 1944 and he was initiated on June 28, 1945 by members of the Kansas City Alumnae Association on behalf of the Gamma-Kappa chapter.) and Alpha Delta Gamma, Honorary member (He was the speaker at the 1954 convention in Kansas City and was inducted as a member there.)

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Tau Epsilon Phi, Honorary member (He was initiated into the Epsilon Eta chapter at Drexel University on May 26, 1967.)

John F. Kennedy, Phi Kappa Theta, Honorary member (On October 2, 1958, Senator Kennedy received a pledge pin from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute chapter of Theta Kappa Phi, a Catholic fraternity. In 1959, Theta Kappa Phi  merged with Phi Kappa, another Catholic fraternity, and formed Phi Kappa Theta.)

Gerald R. Ford, Delta Kappa Epsilon, University of Michigan

Ronald Reagan, Tau Kappa Epsilon, Eureka College

George H.W. Bush, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Yale University

Bill Clinton, Phi Beta Sigma, Honorary member***

George W. Bush, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Yale University

Lyndon B. Johnson was a member of a local, Pi Sigma Chi, at Texas State University. Although the chapter affiliated with Pi Kappa Alpha in 1965. President Johnson was not initiated.

The list of Vice Presidents 

You probably made your way to this page because you saw tweet with this random, and thoroughly incorrect, statement  “Every U.S. President and Vice President, except two in each office, born since the first social fraternity was founded in 1825, have been members of a fraternity.”

To be fair, there may have been a grain of truth in that statistic at one time. Rutherford B. Hayes, born in 1822, was initiated as an honorary member of Delta Kappa Epsilon. Every President from Hayes through Calvin Coolidge, a Phi Gamma Delta initiated as a student at Amherst College, belonged to a Greek-letter organization either as a collegiate member or an honorary member. Herbert Hoover was the first to break that long streak.  The next to break it was Lyndon Johnson. Up until this point, the statement would have been true. Unfortunately, after Johnson, the statistic becomes downright false. Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama Donald Trump, andJoe Biden were fraternity men.

While I would love it if the above statement was true, the fact is that it is not. I suspect someone saw it on something written in the 1960s when it was true and used it in a poster or webpage. It then spread like wildfire. It appears on countless websites as a given fact. Don’t believe me? Do a quick search and you will get pages and pages of results. 

It is my opinion that we – those of us who advocate for and believe in the fraternity system when it works as it was meant to – shoot ourselves in the foot when we spout clearly false information simply because we assume that it is true, because it once was true, and/or because we want it to be true. If you have connections to one of the web-sites that is using that “all but two” information, please bring it to the webmaster’s attention. It hasn’t been true since the late 1960s. It’s also a good example of that old adage about a falsehood traveling around the world before the truth has a chance to tie its shoelaces. And as my Pi Phi friend Ashley Dye said, “the real stats are impressive enough.”

 

Random Notes

Grace Goodhue Coolidge, a charter member of the Vermont Beta chapter of Pi Beta Phi at the University of Vermont, was the first wife of a President to have been initiated in a women’s fraternity while in college. Her husband became an initiated member of Phi Gamma Delta while a student at Amherst College. Together the Coolidges were the first couple initiated into Greek-letter societies during their college years.

Phi Gamma Delta has President Coolidge’s badge and during the fraternity’s 164th Ekkelsia, it was presented to the Archon President to wear. Pi Beta Phi has Mrs. Coolidge’s badges and there is one in the Smithsonian’s collection.

Mrs. Coolidge was not the first First Lady to be a member of a National Panhellenic Conference organization. That honor goes to Lucy Webb Hayes, wife of Rutherford B. Hayes. On December 1, 1880, she accepted the invitation of the Rho Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma at Ohio Wesleyan College to become an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Gamma. Her husband was an honorary member of Delta Kappa Epsilon and the first fraternity man to be President.

Mrs. Coolidge’s successor, Lou Henry Hoover, was also a Kappa Kappa Gamma. She became a member when she was a  Stanford University student.

Laura Welch Bush is a Kappa Alpha Theta, having been initiated while a student at Southern Methodist University. Her husband, George W. Bush, is a member of Yale University chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon. Together they are the second couple initiated into Greek-letter organizations while college students. Another interesting note is that Lynne Ann Vincent Cheney, wife of President Bush’s Vice President, is also a Kappa Alpha Theta. She was initiated into the Colorado College chapter.

In her post-White House years, Barbara Pierce Bush, who had attended Smith College, became an alumna initiate of Pi Beta Phi. Her chapter of initiation is Texas Eta at Texas A&M University. Her husband, George Herbert Walker Bush, is also a member of the Yale University Chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon. His Vice President, Dan Quayle, is also a Delta Kappa Epsilon member. He was initiated into the DePauw University chapter.

Additionally, Joe Biden’s first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden, was an initiate of the Kappa Alpha Theta chapter at Syracuse University. She died in 1972 in a car crash that also killed the couple’s year-old daughter, Naomi.

* The Flat Hat Club was founded at the College of William and Mary in 1750.  It is believed to be the precursor of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, which was established at the same institution in 1776. The modern F.H.C. Society was revived at the College of William and Mary in May, 1972. The Flat Hat is also the name of the college’s student newspaper.

** Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon at Harvard University, also known as the “Dickey Club.” However, the national organization did not recognize the chapter because of the chapter’s stance on dual membership.

*** Bill Clinton became a member of Phi Beta Sigma in 2009, in his post White House years. He became a member of Alpha Phi Omega, a now co-ed service fraternity while at Georgetown University. It was an all-male fraternity when he joined as a college student.