It was founded at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York on February 19, 1982, by 11 undergraduate men, a faculty advisor, and a Cornell administrator. According to The Shield article ,“The family exhausted every means to get further information, but with no success until the receipt of the message, on January 22d, announcing his death nearly two months previously.” The cause of death was bronchial pneumonia and cerebral meningitis.įebruary 19 is also Founders’ Day for La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity, Incorporated, a fraternity for Latino students. His family in Illinois received a letter dated November 24, 1917, written by an Army nurse in it she wrote that Lloyd was in the hospital. Williams died at Base Hospital 34 in Nantes, France on November 26, 1917. It was after these engagements that Lieutenant Williams received his citation for bravery and recommendation for promotion. He saw ten straight days of the most severe fighting in the Argonne forest. Early in October, at his own urgent request, he was transferred to the first division of regulars, being assigned to company K, 28th infantry. infantry in the Toul sector and later in the motor transport service. He was assigned to English and French sectors at different times for further training, specializing in trench mortar work. Almost immediately he received orders to embark, and arrived in France late in September. He entered the service in May 1917 in the first officers’ training camp at Fort Sheridan, receiving his commission as second lieutenant the following August. The Shield of Phi Kappa Psi gives this account of his service: In 1914, he was appointed the city’s attorney. After graduation, he went back to Elgin and began practicing law. He and his brothers grew up in Elgin, Illinois, where their father was a probate judge. Lloyd Garrison Williams was initiated in 1908. Phi Psi,” as Shield Editor and Phi Psi’s Executive Secretary/Director. Elmer Ekblaw, co-founded the tradition of Homecoming it was an idea which spread like wildfire throughout the college landscape, helped along, I believe, by the Greek-letter press. “Dab” would later go on to be “Mr. As a student in 1910, “Dab” along with an Acacia buddy, W. “Army” went on to serve as National President of Phi Kappa Psi, the first of three to come from the chapter. “Dab” was the next Williams brother to sign the chapter roll. He became a charter member of Illinois Delta. Most Phi Psis have heard of two of the brothers, Howard Chandler “Army” Williams and Clarence Foss “Dab” Williams. “Army” started his Phi Psi life as a member of the New Hampshire Alpha chapter at Dartmouth. However, it’s the Williams brothers I want to showcase. Swannell was known as the “Father of Illinois Delta.” He went on to serve as Phi Psi’s National President and he was instrumental in establishing the fraternity’s Endowment Fund. Stoolman, except for the years the war department took over the house as a residence for soldiers in training and a year it was rented out as a boarding house for women before the men returned from war service (the few Phi Psis who were on campus then lived with other fraternity men in the Phi Kappa Tau house).

The chapter has remained in that home since it was built by A.W. 4th Street at the corner of Chalmers is still the fraternity’s home.

Swannell’s efforts and steadfastness of purpose not only saw the Illinois Delta chapter of Phi Kappa Psi receive a charter in 1904 , but he helped the chapter build its own home less than five years after it was established. When his father became ill and he returned to Champaign he was keenly interested in having Phi Psi establish a chapter on campus. There he became a member of the Michigan Alpha chapter of Phi Kappa Psi.

The son of a Champaign businessman, Swannell spent a year at the University of Illinois before heading off to Ann Arbor, Michigan. The quest to establish a Phi Psi chapter at the University of Illinois was led by Dan G. It’s always fun to discover interesting facts about an organization. Phi Kappa Psi’s founders are William Henry Letterman and Charles Page Thomas Moore.įor the last few months, I have been writing a history of the Phi Kappa Psi chapter at the University of Illinois. Phi Kappa Psi was founded on Februin Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, at Jefferson College (now Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania).

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