National Gamma Phi Beta History

Gamma Phi Beta was founded on November 11, 1874, at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, by Helen M. Dodge, Francis E. Haven, Eunice Adeline Curtis, and Mary A. Bingham. They were imaginative, courageous risk takers who cooperated unselfishly as they worked to achieve the same ideals Gamma Phi Beta emphasizes today.

Colleges and universities admitted few women students in the 1870s. In fact, administrators and faculty members gave women a rather reluctant welcome. They argued women had inferior minds and could not master mathematics or the classics. In this controversy, Dr. E. O. Haven, Syracuse University chancellor and former president of the University of Michigan and Northwestern University, maintained that women should receive the advantages of higher education. He enrolled his daughter, Frances, at Syracuse, which in 1874 had approximately 200 students and 10 faculty members.

Frances asked three friends to assist her in organizing a society. They sought the advice and help of Dr.,Haven, their brothers, and the faculty and members of two existing fraternities. The minutes of their first meeting on November 11, 1874 state: "Miss Dodge was appointed to draft a Constitution." Frances Haven and Helen Dodge agreed to ask Dr. Haven for a suitable name and motto. The Founders met again on November 16 for further decisions as recorded in the minutes: "The merits of the six mottos suggested by Chancellor Haven were discussed, and the motto of Gamma Phi Beta unanimously accepted." They agreed on a badge design for which they had sought the help of Charles M. Cobb and Charles M. Moss, Frances' future husband. Helen's brother, a divinity student, suggested the Hebrew word. The jeweler delivered the first badges on December 16, 1874. After the installation of Beta chapter at the University of Michigan in 1882, Syracuse faculty member Dr. Frank Smalley coined the word sorority especially for Gamma Phi beta. It has been used ever since.

Sigma Chapter at The Univeristy of Kansas History

The Sigma Chapter of Gamma Phi Beta was installed on October 9, 1915 at the University of Kansas.  Under the leadership of Helen Rhoda Hoopes, faculty member, and Marie Goodman, Beta.  The Crescent Club was formed in March, 1915, to petition Gamma Phi Beta.  The group was investigated by Katherine Silverson and Mabelle Miller and convention granted the charter.  Nineteen girls became Sigma charter members in the home of one of the initiates, Isabel Gilmore, with Margaret Nachtrieb and Mildred Peery conducting the initiation.