Epsilon Alpha

Ashland University

With the installation of the Epsilon Alpha chapter at Ashland College, Ashland, Ohio, on April 15 and 16, Alpha Phi began her fifth trip through the Greek alphabet. The new chapter was founded as Beta Phi Beta local sorority by Jane Dolby and Patsey Koons on April 19, 1965. They began with twenty-five members and built the local chapter into the strongest sorority on campus. Beta Phi Beta formally petitioned Alpha Phi for a charter in May of 1966, and it was accepted that November. Shortly after new member ceremonies, which were conducted in the college library on Saturday, January 7, 1967, by Beta Omicron (Bowling Green), the new chapter was plunged into recruitment activities. The added presence of field secretary Judy Kay Schmidt Mead (Delta Gamma-Northern Colorado) during recruitment week inspired them with the traditional Alpha Phi spirit, and they successfully pledged their full quota of eighteen. These new members were initiated later that fall. The Saturday morning initiation ceremony of the forty-on Ashland coeds was conducted by Delta Upsilon (Baldwin Wallace), at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Ashland. That evening, the candlelight chartering ceremony was conducted by International Fraternity officers at the Mansfield-Leland Hotel, followed by the formal installation banquet. LaVerne Nolan Harvey Leary (Delta Epsilon-Iowa), executive secretary-treasurer of Alpha Phi, was the principal speaker of the evening. The banquet closed with the beautiful and traditional Loving Cup Ceremony presented by Carol Evans Warren (Beta Omega-Kent State), District IV governor.