The day following the Special Meeting of Alpha Phi Delta, Tex Roper ’76 may have been the first Beta Pi to utilize the now-digitized archives of old issues of Shield & Diamond magazine. The recently formed Historical Society of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, to which Bruce Wolfson ’71 was elected to the position of Vice Chairman, has been busy transforming Pi Kappa Alpha Inter/National documents and individual chapter histories into a form accessible on the internet.
Specifically, after participating in the Special Meeting to amend the Alpha Phi Delta by-laws, elect a new Board of Directors, choose new officers, create a committee to examine all the by-laws, and form a task force to parley with the University of Pennsylvania administration about the future of the Chapter House, he had a growing curiosity about the origins and history of Alpha Phi Delta.
By using the Chrome browser, Tex “found three different digitized articles within the January 1921 issue of Shield and Diamond (Volume 30, No. 2) which bear on Beta Pi’s founding and further inform our understanding of the local fraternity Alpha Phi Delta prior to the grant of the original charter of the Beta Pi chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha by National on December 1, 1920. I thought some of you might find these articles to be of interest:
“History of Alpha Phi Delta, Now Beta Pi Chapter,” Shield and Diamond, Volume 30, No. 2 (Dec 1920), p. 166-169.
https://pike.historyit.com/item.php?id=922742#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-1285%2C0%2C4174%2C2698
“Beta Pi, University of Pennsylvania,” Shield and Diamond, Volume 30, No. 2 (Dec 1920), p. 306.
https://pike.historyit.com/item.php?id=921845#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-1786%2C-42%2C5177%2C2876
“Official Announcement No. 15,” Shield and Diamond, Volume 30, No. 2 (Dec 1920), p. 350-351.
https://pike.historyit.com/item.php?id=921852#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-1284%2C0%2C4174%2C2698”
Apparently, brother Roper was not the only person interested in Alpha Phi Delta. In response to his distribution of this information, he received comments from the following brothers thanking him for his initiative and for sharing his research:
Chawner Hurd ’80 Fred Rubin ’80 Ed Shamy ‘74
Michael Benator ’74 Paul Zaentz ’69 Bruce Wolfson ‘71
Myron Oppenheimer ’74.
Thank you, Tex, for sharing these findings for all to benefit.
