Delta Kappa Epsilon

Delta Kappa Epsilon (Î"ΚΕ; also pronounced D K E or "Deke") is the oldest secret college men's fraternity of New England origin. Î"ΚΕ was founded at Yale College by 15 men of the sophomore class who, upon hearing that some but not all of them had been invited to join the two existing societies (Alpha Delta Phi and Psi Upsilon), instead elected to form their own fraternity. These men sought to establish a fellowship "where the candidate most favored was he who combined in the most equal proportions the gentleman, the scholar, and the jolly good fellow."

Founding and history

Original version of the Î"ΚΕ coat of arms

The society was founded June 22, 1844, in number 12 Old South Hall, Yale College. At this meeting, the Fraternity's secret and open Greek mottos were devised. The open motto is "Kerothen Philoi Aei" ("Friends from the Heart, Forever"). The pin and secret handshake was also devised. The DKE pin shows Î"ΚΕ on a scroll, upon a diamond with a star in each corner. DKE's heraldic colours are azure (blue), or (gold), and gules (crimson) and its flag is a triband of those colours with a left-facing rampant lion in the middle.

Within three years of the founding at Yale, chapters were founded at Bowdoin, Princeton University, Colby College, and Amherst College. Since that time, DKE has grown to over 64 chapters and has initiated over 85,000 members across North America. It became an international fraternity on November 17, 1889 with the founding of the Alpha Phi chapter at the University of Toronto, Canada.

DKE is inextricably linked to the history of the United States of America, as its members have included five of forty-three Presidents of the United States: Rutherford B. Hayes, Theodore Roosevelt, Gerald Ford, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush. Another way to look at this impact, is that this is five of the most recent 25 US Presidents (20%), at the time of George W. Bush's election.

Some might argue that Franklin Delano Roosevelt would be the 6th US President that was a DKE. FDR was a member, however, of a DKE Chapter (Alpha at Harvard) while also a member of Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. FDR was thrown out for his dual membership in the 1890s.

During the Civil War, the first Union officer killed in battle was a Deke, Theodore Winthrop of Phi. Six weeks after Lee's surrender at Appomattox, Philip Spence of Zeta commanded Confederate troops in their last organized battle of the war.

In the election of 1876, the Republican Party chose between two Dekes, nominating Hayes rather than rival and fellow DKE James G. Blaine, who later served two administrations as Secretary of State and who authored the Fourteenth Amendment; Blaine also ran unsuccessfully for President.

Flag of Î"ΚΕ

During the Spanish-American War, the first American officer to be killed was a Deke, Surgeon John B. Gibbs (Rutgers), and his brother in DKE J. Frank Aldritch (DePauw) died when the USS Maine was sunk. In this same war, Deke Theodore Roosevelt distinguishes himself and starts on his path to the Presidency.

The fraternity's membership has also included dozens of American and Canadian politicians, businessmen, sports figures, and artists who have achieved iconic status, including among many others J.P. Morgan, William Randolph Hearst, Cole Porter, Henry Cabot Lodge, Dick Clark, Tom Landry, and George Steinbrenner. Deke flags have been carried to the North Pole by its discoverer, Admiral Robert Peary (Theta), and to the Moon by astronaut Alan Bean (Omega Chi).

Pin of Î"ΚΕ

Delta Kappa Epsilon administers a charitable organization called the Rampant Lion Foundation. As well, Deke has championed an organization call ROAR, which stands for Restore Our Associational Rights. ROAR campaigns for the freedom of fraternities and Greek organizations in general to operate without interference and discrimination from university administrations or others.

During the presidency of George W. Bush, questions were raised as to whether DKE initiates were branded with a small Î" on their buttocks in an act of hazing. Though apparently some dekes (the number ranges from 2-5 between sources) were branded, it was entirely voluntary and was not part of any initiation rite; in fact those who were branded had already been members for several years.

Traditionally a New England fraternity, Delta Kappa Epsilon's first West Coast chapter was founded at the University of California, Berkeley on Halloween night, 1876. DKE is the fourth fraternity at the prestigious institution. Their rival, Stanford University, followed suit in 1901. Currently, they are joined by UCLA and Davis as the only active chapters of Delta Kappa Epsilon on the West Coast.

The DKE Chapter at Kenyon College was founded in 1852; the first fraternity lodge in America was built by the actives about a mile from campus shortly thereafter.

The Sigma Chi Fraternity was founded in 1855 when members of the Miami chapter split over a debate on the office of Poet in the Erodelphian Literary Society.

Famous alumni

Presidents of the United States
*19th President, Rutherford B. Hayes, Delta Chi (Hayes is an Honorary Deke; three of his sons were Dekes at Cornell, and the fraternity later conferred honorary membership upon him.)
*26th President, Theodore Roosevelt, Alpha ("TR was also a member of Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity. Dual membership restrictions were more lax back then")
*32nd President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Alpha (FDR was a member of a DKE Chapter, Alpha at Harvard, that had been suspended for conflict with the international organization several years before (in essence an illegal chapter known as the "Dicky Club"). FDR was also a member of Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity. Two possible reasons why FDR is not counted as a DKE. First, his initiation was illegal as the Harvard DKE chapter was a renegade organization. Second, Alpha Delta Phi was more prestigious at the time. For this reason he is not numbered among the Presidents who were Dekes.)
*38th President, Gerald R. Ford, Omicron
*41st President, George H. W. Bush, Phi
*43rd President, George W. Bush, Phi

Vice Presidents of the United States
*Theodore Roosevelt, Alpha
*Gerald R. Ford, Omicron
*George H. W. Bush, Phi
*J. Danforth Quayle, Psi Phi

Sitting state governors
*George Pataki, New York (Honorary)
*Don Siegelman, Psi, Alabama

Newspaper publishers and editors
*Otis Chandler, Sigma Rho, Publisher, Los Angeles Times
*William Randolph Hearst, Alpha, Publisher, Hearst Newspapers
*Rance Craine, Psi Phi, Publisher, Crain Communications
*Richard J. V. Johnson, Omega Chi, Publisher, Houston Chronicle
*Eugene Pulliam, Psi Phi, Publisher, Indianapolis Newspapers, Inc.
*Whitelaw Reid, Kappa, Editor-in-chief, New York Tribune

Justices of the United States Supreme Court
*Harold H. Burton, Theta
*John Hessin Clarke, Beta Chi
*Potter Stewart, Phi

Agency Heads
*George H. W. Bush, Phi - CIA Director under Gerald R. Ford, Omicron

Businessmen
*John F. Akers, Phi - Past President of I.B.M.
*Edward Bausch, Beta Phi - Bausch & Lomb Opticals
*Irving H. Chase, Phi - Chase Manhattan Bank
*Evan Fawkes, Iota - Waldersteed Hotel Chain
*James M. Gamble, Lambda - Procter & Gamble
*Howard Heinz, Phi - H. J. Heinz Company
*Howard Johnson, Phi - Howard Johnson Motor Inns
*Herb Kelleher, Gamma Phi - Southwest Airlines
*Craig McCaw, Sigma Rho - McCaw Wireless, cellular telephones
*J. Pierpont Morgan, Alpha - financier
*Fred Smith, Phi - Federal Express
*Dean Witter, Jr., Phi - Dean Witter & Co. (Now part of Morgan Stanley)
*William W. Wrigley, Phi - Wrigley Company
*Joesph C. Wilson, Beta Phi - Xerox

Famous political figures
*Dean G. Acheson, Phi - Secretary of State under Harry S. Truman
*Nathaniel P Bankes, Sigma - Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
*Albert J. Beveridge, Psi Phi - US Senator, Indiana
*James G. Blaine, Theta - Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, presidential candidate
*John Chafee, Phi - Secretary of the Navy, Governor of Rhode Island, U.S. Senator
*George Drew, Alpha Phi - Premier of Ontario, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, Leader of the Opposition
*Murphy J. "Mike" Foster, Zeta Zeta - two-term Governor of Louisiana
*Tony Knowles, Phi, two-term Governor of Alaska
*Robert Todd Lincoln, Alpha - Secretary of War, son of Abraham Lincoln
* Luke Vander Linden, Iota Mu - President, Brooklyn Young Republicans
*Bob Livingston, Tau Lambda - U.S. House of Representatives, Louisiana
*Henry Cabot Lodge, Alpha - Senate Majority Leader
*Nicholas Longworth, Alpha - Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
*Mark McClung, Delta Phi - Founder of CSIS
*Mario García Menocal, Delta Chi - President of the Republic of Cuba
*Yuan Shikai, Phi - First President of the Republic of China
*Sargent Shriver, Phi - First Director of the Peace Corps
*William Simon, Rho - Secretary of the Treasury
*Rear Admiral Sidney W. Souers, Kappa - first director of the CIA
*Ted Stevens, Theta Rho, U.S. Senator, Alaska
*Gordon Gray, Beta - Assistant secretary of war under Harry Truman

Sports and entertainment
*Walter Camp, Phi - Father of American Football
*Paul Brown, Kappa - coach of Cleveland Browns and owner of the Cincinnati Bengals
*Dick Clark, Phi Gamma - hosted American Bandstand
*Hugh Culverhouse, Psi - owner of Tampa Bay Buccaneers
*A. Bartlett Giamatti, Phi - Commissioner of Major League Baseball
*Harry Hamlin, Theta Zeta - actor
*Charles Ives, Phi - composer
*Thomas W. Landry, Omega Chi - coach of Dallas Cowboys
*Joe Paterno, Upsilon - Penn State football coach
*David Milch, Phi - writer and producer
*Bob Pettit, Zeta Zeta - National Basketball Association All star and hall of famer.
*Cole Porter, Phi - composer
*Don Schollander, Phi - won four gold medals in swimming in the 1964 Summer Olympics
*George Steinbrenner, Epsilon - owner of the New York Yankees
*Matt Stover, Alpha Omega - Placekicker for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League.
*Jonathan Winters, Lambda - comedian and writer
*Billy Crudup, Beta - actor
*James Elder, Alpha Phi - Olympic Gold Medalist Equestrian Team (1968)
*Jack Agrios, Delta Phi - Chairman of the IAAF World Championships in Athletics Committee 2001
*Michael Macari, Epsilon Rho - Film Producer (The Ring)
*Steve Hansen, Phi Gamma - Board Member (The Scorpion Lounge)

Other famous Dekes
*Alan Bean, Omega Chi - Apollo astronaut
*Edward Bellamy, Theta Chi - author
*Melvil Dewey, Sigma - devised the Dewey Decimal System
*Charles A. Ellis, Gamma Phi - designed the Golden Gate Bridge
*Robert E. Peary, Theta - first man to reach the North Pole
*Nathaniel Hawthorne, Theta - author

Active chapters

1) Phi - Yale

2) Zeta[1] - Princeton

3) Sigma - Amherst

4) Gamma[2] - Vanderbilt

5) Psi - Alabama

6) Chi - Mississippi

7) Beta - UNC-CH

8) Kappa - Miami

9) Lambda[3] - Kenyon

10) Eta[4] - Virginia

11) Alpha Alpha - Middlebury

12) Omicron[5] - Michigan

13) Rho[6] - Lafayette

14) Tau - Hamilton

15) Mu - Colgate

17) Beta Phi[7] - Rochester

18) Zeta Zeta - LSU

19) Phi Chi - Rutgers

20) Gamma Phi[8] - Wesleyan

21) Beta Chi[9] - Case Western

22) Delta Chi[10] - Cornell

23) Delta Delta[11] - Chicago

24) Phi Gamma[12] - Syracuse

25) Theta Zeta - Berkeley

26) Phi Epsilon[13] - Minnesota

27) Sigma Tau - MIT

28) Theta Chi[14] - Union College

29) Tau Lambda - Tulane

30) Alpha Phi[15] - Toronto

31) Delta Kappa - Pennsylvania

32) Sigma Rho[16] - Stanford

33) Rho Delta - Wisconsin

34) Kappa Epsilon - Washington

35) Omega Chi[17] - Texas

36) Alpha Tau[18] - Manitoba

37) Theta Rho[19] - UCLA

38) Delta Phi[20] - Alberta

39) Phi Alpha[21] - British Columbia

40) Tau Delta - Sewanee

41) Psi Delta[22] - Wake Forest University

42) Sigma Alpha[23] - Virginia Tech

43) Phi Delta[24] - Western Ontario

44) Alpha Mu - Rowan

45) Epsilon Rho[25] - Duke

46) Nu Zeta[26] - Pace

47) Zeta Upsilon[27] - UC, Davis

48) Phi Sigma - Bryant

49) Phi Rho[28] - Penn State

50) Chi Rho[29] - Bloomsburg

51) Zeta Chi[30] - Bentley

52) Sigma Beta - UC, Santa Barbara

53) Beta Gamma[31] - NYU

54) Alpha Beta - DePaul

55) Sigma Kappa - Michigan State

56) Delta Tau - Ohio State

57) Delta Psi[32] - Indiana

58) Mu Chi - Maryville

59) Upsilon Omega - South Alabama

60) Kappa Omega - Lake Forest

61) Rho Beta[33] - Richmond

63) Phi Beta - Stephen F. Austin

For a complete list of all historical chapters, see DKE's Chapter Website.

External links and references

* DKE history
* DKE Organization Home Page
* DKE Chapters in Canada