On August 30, 1912, Theta Phi Alpha was founded at the University of Michigan. Although founded on August 30, Theta Phi Alpha celebrates Founders’ Day on April 30, the Feast Day of St. Catherine of Siena.* St. Catherine is the patroness of the organization and her motto, “Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring, ” is Theta Phi Alpha’s motto.
In the early 1900s, Catholics were not always welcome in the other fraternal organizations. Today, just as other organizations have accepted Catholic women, Theta Phi Alpha is open to women of all religions. When Theta Phi Alpha was founded, the Catholic hierarchy believed that Catholic women should attend Catholic institutions. Giving Catholic women the opportunity to join a Catholic sorority could keep them close to their religious roots at a secular institution.
In 1909, Father Edward D. Kelly, a priest and the pastor of the Michigan’s student chapel organized Omega Upsilon. He believed that the Catholic women at the university should have the opportunity to belong to an organization that “resembled the Catholic homes from which they came.”
Theta Phi Alpha Founders
After Father Kelly left campus and became the Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit, Omega Upsilon was struggling. There were no alumnae to guide the organization. Bishop Kelly’s vision that the Catholic women at Michigan should have a place to call their own was still alive even though he was not on campus. He enlisted the assistance of Amelia McSweeney, a 1898 University of Michigan alumna. Together with seven Omega Upsilon alumnae, plans were made to establish a new organization, Theta Phi Alpha.
Theta Phi Alpha’s ten founders are Amelia McSweeney, Mildred M. Connely, May C. Ryan, Selma Gilday, Camilla Ryan Sutherland, Helen Ryan Quinlan, Katrina Caughey Ward, Dorothy Caughey Phalan, Otilia Leuchtweis O’Hara, and Eva Stroh Bauer Everson. Seven of them were Omega Upsilon alumnae and two were undergraduate members of Omega Upsilon.
Theta Phi Alpha remained a local organization until 1919 when the Beta Chapter was formed at the University of Illinois. In addition, chapters at Ohio State University, Ohio University and the University of Cincinnati were chartered that year.
The Zeta Chapter at Indiana University was installed in May 1920. It became inactive in 1931. Between those years, in 1925, Caroline Louise Kempf, a member of the chapter, wrote a song to the tune of Sweet Genevieve.
The Indiana University Song Book, 1921
Kempf was one of eight children born to Dr. Edward and Caroline Judy Kempf of Jasper, Indiana. After marrying Brantley Burcham, the couple moved to Orlando, Florida. She died in 1997 at the age of 95, and she saw Orlando grow from a sleepy little Florida town to the entertainment megalopolis it is today. She was active in the Orlando community and gave unselfishly of her time and talents.
The Zeta Chapter was reinstalled in 1949, but it closed in 1957. On January 17, 2012, 65 women were initiated as Zeta Chapter came back to the Indiana University campus.
