Just a few more days until the major announcement on Friday:
Until then, here's another landmark event in the history of Theta Chi Fraternity!
Beta Chapter is installed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology on December 13, 1902. Park Valentine Perkins had transferred from Norwich to MIT and recruited an initial group of 11 students to establish Theta Chi. Two senior cadets from Alpha Chapter, Samuel L. Fuller and Allan R. Williams, developed the Installation Ceremony and traveled to Boston to conduct the initiation and installation.
An Installation Banquet followed on January 3, 1903 – there was certainly cause to celebrate: Theta Chi had become a National Fraternity!
This group photo of members and alumni of Alpha and Beta Chapters was taken at the home of J. Albert Holmes (Alpha 1895) on January 4, 1902, the day after the Installation Banquet. Holmes would be elected Theta Chi’s first National President 5 years later.
A banquet celebrating the installation of Beta Chapter was held at the United States Hotel in Boston on January 3, 1902. Undergraduates from Alpha and Beta, along with a large number of alumnus members were present. E. Wesson Clark served as toastmaster and offered toasts to “Theta Chi, crowned with success,” to The Beta Chapter, The Ladies, The Bachelors, The Army, representing the military character of Norwich, and to The Engineers, representing Technology.This is an original program from the banquet, complete with penciled remarks: