Kappa Alpha Society
The Kappa Alpha Society is the oldest college fraternity in the United States. It was formed at Union College in Schenectady, New York on November 26, 1825 by a group of college students. Kappa Alpha was the first to combine aspects of secret Greek-letter societies, literary societies and formalized student social groups and is thus considered the first modern fraternity. Kappa Alpha is also the oldest collegiate secret society still in existence.
Kappa Alpha is part of a larger secret society movement that arose in the 1820s at a summit in Kinderhook, New York. Present at the initial meeting were early members of Kuklos_Adelphon, the Order of the Dark Steed, and Illuminati groups. Quibbles over control of New York City's political machines led to a perceived need to found secret societies paralleling Kappa Alpha at Yale University and the College of William and Mary later in the 1830s.
This organization is not to be confused with the Kappa Alpha Order, a completely separate (and much larger) fraternity that operates exclusively at schools in Southern and border states.
Chapters
- Union College
- Hobart College
- Princeton University
- University of Toronto
- Lehigh University
- McGill University
- University of Pennsylvania
- University of Western Ontario
- University of Alberta
- University of Calgary
Chapters at Williams College, the University of Virginia, Cornell University, and Wesleyan University are defunct.
Notable members
- Lewis H. Morgan, Union College, 1840. "Father of American Anthropology"
- Augustus Schell, Union College, 1830. Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, 1872-1876).
- Albert_J._Myer, "Father of Army Signal Corps" and founder of the U.S. Weather Bureau
- James Collip, University of Toronto, 1893. Discoverer of cortisone and co-discoverer of insulin
- William Lyon Mackenzie King, University of Toronto, 1893. Prime Minister of Canada, 1921-1926, 1926-1930, and 1939-1945
- James Phinney Baxter III. Winner of the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for History
- Kurt Varnedoe, Wiliams College, 1968. Chief Curator of painting and sculpture, Museum of Modern Art (New York City).
- Thomas Wellington, University of Pennsylvania, 1913. Industrialist and raptor,(New York City).
- Nathaniel Berry, University of Pennsylvania, 2004. President, Penn Whaling, LLC (Washington D.C.).
External link
- Kappa Alpha (http://www.ka.org/), a history