Beta Phi

About Delta Kappa Epsilon

National History of DKE
                

                 Each year at Yale University during the 1840's, certain members of the sophomore class were elected to two junior societies, Alpha Delta Phi and Psi Upsilon. In the spring of 1844, due to undergraduate politics and a division in the sophomore class, a number of men of high character and scholastic attainment did not receive bids from the two societies. So unfair, in fact, were the selections that some men who did receive bids promptly rejected them.

                 On Saturday, June 22, 1844, fifteen Yale sophomores, rejecting the status quo, met and formed a new junior society they called Delta Kappa Epsilon. Very quickly DKE became more than just another junior society. Its predecessors' criterion of academic distinction, while still highly respected, was expanded to include the qualities of good fellowship and compatible tastes and interests and thus attracted a wider range of prospective members. More fraternal than its rival societies, DKE proceeded to recruit men who combine "in equal proportions the gentleman, the scholar, and the jolly good fellow" -- criteria that have remained unchanged to this day.

                 We are proud of our fraternity and the more than 70,000 men who have become our brothers since DKE was founded in 1844. Dekes come from every walk of life. Many have gone on to distinguish themselves in politics, the arts, sciences, sports, education, and the humanities. Five U.S. Presidents have been Dekes, more than any other any fraternity. The first man to reach the North Pole was a Deke, and a Deke has carried our flag to the moon. In every corner of the world you will meet fellow Dekes, but whatever their background or station in life, all are united by the shared experience of membership in DKE.

A Few Important Dates in DKE History

· June 22, 1844 - National Founding at Yale

· 1854 - The world's first fraternity lodge was built by the Lambda chapter of DKE at Kenyon University in Gambier, Ohio

· March 14, 1881, Brother Rutherford B. Hayes of DKE's Delta Chi chapter at Cornell University became the 19th President of the United States and the first President to belong to a greek organization.

· 1901 - Theodore Roosevelt, a Deke from Harvard, became the second Deke to become U.S. President

· April 6, 1909 - Robert Peary from Bowdoin's Theta chapter of DKE carried a Deke flag to the North Pole as he was the first to reach the Pole.

· November 19, 1969 - Alan Bean, a Deke from the University of Texas, planted a Deke flag on the moon as the fourth man to walk on the moon.

· 1974 - Gerald Ford became the third Deke in the White House.

· January 20, 1989 - George H.W. Bush from DKE's mother chapter, Phi at Yale, became DKE's fourth U.S. President

January 2000 - George W. Bush followed in the DKE tradition as our fraternity's fifth President.

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