Sigma Pi (ΣΠ) is an international college social fraternity with chapters in the United States and Canada. Like most social fraternities, membership is by invitation and limited to men. Founded on February 26, 1897 at Vincennes University by William Raper Kennedy, James Thompson Kingsbury, George Martin Patterson, and Rolin Rosco James, it started as Tau Phi Delta (ΤΦΔ), a literary society with fraternal ideals. Tau Phi Delta changed its name to The Sigma Pi Fraternity, United States in 1907 and began establishing new chapters that same year. With the establishment of the Fraternity's first Canadian chapter in 1984, the organization's name was changed to The Sigma Pi Fraternity, International. The Fraternity was the first of its kind to be founded west of the Ohio Valley and a charter member of the North-American Interfraternity Conference. Among other things, Sigma Pi promotes fellowship, scholarship, chivalry, and character by organizing social, academic, and philanthropy events for its members and the communities in which its chapters are located. Today, Sigma Pi consists of 136 active collegiate groups, dozens of alumni clubs, and over 88,000 initiates. In addition, a separate, but related entity, the Sigma Pi Educational Foundation, manages trust assets for the educational benefit of both members and non-members. The Fraternity is headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee.
Sigma Pi Creed
in Sigma Pi, a Fellowship of
kindred minds, united in
Brotherhood to advance Truth
and Justice, to promote
Scholarship, to encourage
Chivalry, to diffuse Culture, and
to develop Character, in the
Service of God and Man; and
I will strive to make real the
Fraternity's ideals in my own
daily life.
The Five Ideals
The First Ideal: To establish a brotherhood.The Second Ideal: To establish and maintain an aristocracy of learning.
The Third Ideal: To raise the standards of morality and develop character.
The Fourth Ideal: To diffuse culture and encourage chivalry.
The Fifth Ideal: To promote the spirit of civic righteousness and quicken the national conscience.
Chapters and Colonies
Notable Alumni
Government, Military, Law & Politics
- Curtis Shake (Alpha Chapter, Vincennes): Indiana jurist, politician, and 72nd Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court, and the presiding judge of the IG Farben trial, one of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials.
- Mike Beebe (Alpha-Pi Chapter, Arkansas State): Attorney General and Governor of Arkansas.
Science, Technology & Exploration
- Walter Marty Schirra, Jr. (Alpha-Mu Chapter, NJIT): Astronaut: Project Mercury, Project Gemini, and Project Apollo.
Sports, Journalism, Arts & Entertainment
- Tracy Lawrence (Epsilon-Kappa Chapter, Southern Arkansas): Country music star.
- Tony Romo (Beta-Gamma, Eastern Illinois): Quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys.
Trivia
- Jimmy Buffett was a pledge of Alpha-Delta Chapter (Auburn), but was not initiated after being suspended from the school because of poor grades. Buffett later transferred to Southern Mississippi and joined Kappa Sigma.
- The Fraternity's "ACE" (Altruistic Campus Experience) Project is the first fraternity or sorority campus service program for chapters specifically designed to benefit their host institutions.
- Sigma Pi is successor to the former Delta Kappa Fraternity, which ceased to exist when it merged into Sigma Pi in 1964. (with the exception of two chapters which elected to become chapters of Delta Sigma Phi).
References
External links
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Tuesday July 22, 2008 at 19:02:40 PDT (GMT -0700)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation
Copyright © 2008, Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.