THE HISTORY OF ALPHA PHI OMEGA
As told by founder Frank Reed Horton

As a senior at Lafayette College, I talked to some of the men with a Scouting background and the response was good. These men would join an organization based on the ideals of Scouting. I created the name Alpha Phi Omega, the motto and the Greek words and their meaning and wrote the Ritual. Everett W. Probst designed the pin and drew the Coat-of-Arms. Thane S. Cooley suggested the handclasp. Ellsworth S. Dobson and Gordon M. Looney helped write the Constitution and Bylaws.

On December 16, 1925 at Lafayette College Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity was founded by Fourteen undergraduates: Frank R. Horton, Everett W. Probst, Thane S. Cooley, William T. Wood, E. M. Detwiler, Lewis B. Blair, Gordon M. Looney, Wm. W. Highberger, Ray O. Wyland, Donald H. Fritts, George A. Olsen, Robert J. Green, Ellsworth S. Dobson, Herbert Heinrich, John H. MacCraken, Donald B. Prentice, D. Arthur Hatch, Harry T. Spengler, Herbert G. Horton, Donald L. Terwilliger. Scouting advisors were Dr. Ray O. Wyland and Herbert G. Horton.

The Lafayette College Faculty approved the petition for recognition. On December 16, 1925, I conducted the Ritual initiation at Brainerd Hall, second floor, and Alpha Phi Omega was born.

The history of Alpha Phi Omega then is a story of Leadership, Friendship and Service. Since the founding at Lafayette College in 1925, more than 240,000 students have participated in this nationwide Brotherhood. From a single chapter in 1925, this National Service Fraternity has grown to 670 chapters.

Following the chartering of Beta Chapter at the University of Pittsburgh, three more chapters were chartered in 1927 -- Gamma at Cornell University on February 17, Delta at Auburn University on November 8, and Epsilon at Northeast Missouri State University on Dec. 13. And with the chartering of the sixth chapter -- Zeta at Stanford University -- on May 19, 1928, Alpha Phi Omega in its first four years had spread from the East to the South to the Midwest and all the way to the Pacific Coast. The Fraternity has continued to grow, having chartered more chapters than any other collegiate organization.

In the very early years, decisions of the National Fraternity were made by mail. The first actual assembly of delegates in convention was in St. Louis, Missouri, March 1 and 2, 1931. By that date the Fraternity had grown to 18 chapters. Seven of the chapters were represented at the convention by a total of 23 students and advisors.

At the 1976 National Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, the delegates voted to open the ranks of full membership to women, thereby making the Alpha Phi Omega experience available to all students.

Thirty biennial National Conventions have been held (two were skipped in 1942 and 1944 because of World War II). A special Constitutional Convention was held in 1967.

Convention attendance has, of course, grown tremendously. The largest registration thus far was 2,035 at Boston, Massachusetts, in 1992, and the largest number of chapters represented was 231 in Dallas, Texas, in 1970.