Fraternity History
An overview of our Fraternity's History
 
How It All Began...
 
[photo of headquarters house]
The Delta Chi Fraternity was formed on October 13, 1890, by a group of law students at Cornell University. Originally established as a law fraternity, Delta Chi became the first single membership general fraternity in a professional field in 1909.
 
In 1922, Delta Chi became a general fraternity, accepting young men in all college majors.
 
1929 marked a historic year for fraternities. In that year, at the Delta Chi National Convention in Estes Park, Colorado, Delta Chi abolished Hell Week, becoming the first fraternity to outlaw this practice. Since then Delta Chi has continued to be a leader in fraternity activities.
 
Delta Chi has over 120 chapters with over 90,000 total initiates to date. We are also consistently chosen as one of the nations top 10 fraternities and are presently the fastest growing mid-size fraternity in North America.
 
Some noteworthy brothers include:
  • Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States
  • John Bricker, Past Governor and U.S. Senator from Ohio
  • Henry "Scoop" Jackson, late Senator from Washington and presidential candidate
  • Otis Bowen, former Governor of Indiana and Secretary of Health and Human Services
  • Larry Craig, Senator from Idaho
  • Henry Hartsfield, space shuttle commander
  • Samuel R Johnson, U.S. Representative from Texas
  • John Mica, U.S. Representative from Florida
  • Dan Miller, former U.S. Representative from Florida
  • William Sessions, former Director of the FBI
  • Richard Shelby, Senator from Alabama
  • Bob Stump, late U.S. Representative from Arizona
  • Craig Thomas, Senator from Wyoming
  • David R. Thompson, U.S. 9th District Court Judge
  • James Webb, former Secretary of the Navy
  • Bill Zeliff, former U.S. Representative from New Hampshire
  • Robert Todd Lincoln, son of President Abraham Lincoln, Secretary of War
  • William Jennings Bryan, famous orator and presidential candidate
  • John Calhoun, former Vice President of Quaker Oats
  • William Cole, Senior Vice President of Shearson Lehman Brothers
  • C.W.W. "Tex" Cook, former Chairman of General Foods
  • Jerry Dozier, Vice President of Merrill Lynch
  • Verne Drews, Vice President of Nabisco
  • Thomas Glasgow, former Chief Operations Officer of McDonald's
  • Sam Ginn, Chairman of the Board of Vodafone AirTouch
  • R. Jim Harring, Corporate Vice President of Motorola
  • William Hayes, Senior Vice President of Texas Instruments
  • Gordon Jones, retired Vice President of Hearst Publications
  • Ed Kangas, former Chairman of the Board of Deloitte & Touche
  • Herb Klein, former Editor-in-Chief of Copley newspapers and former President Nixon's Press Secretary
  • Charles Marshall, former Vice Chairman of the Board for AT&T
  • Dave Kolander, retired Vice President of 3M
  • Jack Del Rio, Head Coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars
  • Rod Dedeaux, former USC coach and college baseball's "Coach of the Century"
  • Pat Gillick, former General Manager for the Seattle Mariners
  • Nolan Harrison, NFL Hall of Fame member
  • Larry Himes, former General Manager for the Chicago Cubs
  • Ron Mix, NFL Hall of Fame member
  • Sean Salisbury, former NFL player and ESPN Analyst
  • Kevin Costner, actor and director
  • Ashton Kutcher, actor and producer
  • Russell Nye, Pulitzer Prize winning author
  • G.D. Spradlin, actor from such movies as The Godfather II, Lords of Discipline, and Apocalypse Now
  • James Stewart, author of Bloodsport and other titles
  • Robert Newton Peck, Writer of children's books, including the Soup series
  • Richard Peck, Newberry Award winning author of children's books