 1923 Members of Alpha Chapter  By 1920 there were, however, several sub-rosa organizations which sought to be fraternities yet were know more for their hazing and abuse. Three student Knights Templar, Claude R. brown, Charles W. Knapp, and Harold D. Van Vranken, frustrated by both the university rule, and these illegal groups, decided to establish a fraternity of Master Masons as an example for these organizations to follow and to force them out into the open so that they might be guided and governed by proper authority. The first meeting was held on March 25, 1921, but it was not until the fall term of 1922 that they had selected nine other Master Masons to join. The number of members (12) was based to Masonic practice, the academic goals were set to mirror Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Mu Sigma Fraternity invited the president, deans, and professors at the college who were Master Masons to become honorary members. Faced with the expulsion of twelve of their top scholars, the management deleted the prohibition of fraternities clause from their catalog and accepted membership in Sigma Mu Sigma. These Brothers were:
(1) Harold D. Van Vranken (2) Claude R. Brown (3) Charles W. Knapp (4) J. Rex Shipman (5) H. Russell Jeffery (6) Leon J. Smith
(7) Christy Wikens (8) Earl M. Rader (9) George W. Bean
(10) Thomas W. Regan (11) Ralph Overholt (12) Frank M. Earl
Though the number of Brothers increased to 20 within a year, the
fraternity was forced to abandon its high academic standard in order to recruit
the best candidates. Meetings were first held above Elston Shoe Store and then
the fraternity received its own room in the local Masonic Lodge. Throughout
the 1920s Alpha Chapter, like the fraternity as a whole, grew to become an
important and accept part of the local and college community. In 1920 the average
freshman male was 20, the age requirement needed to become a Mason, but by
1930 that age had dropped to 17. The decline in eligible recruits was compounded
by the Depression. First Sigma Mu Sigma opened membership to brothers and then
later relatives of Master Masons. The National organization was acquired by
Tau Kappa Epsilon in 1934 but Alpha and a number of other chapters chose to
remain Sigma Mu Sigma.
 Clyde E Shaw On August 3, 1952 the fraternity merged with the four chapters of another
formally all Masonic group, Sigma
Alpha Chi, in what became Sigma Mu Sigma - Square and Compass. As
the national fraternity grew throughout the 1950s and early 1960s , its emphasis
was increasingly in the Mid-Atlantic States. Nevertheless, Alpha Chapter remained
important with Roger Haymond becoming National Deputy Grand President in 1965.
The late 1960s were not good times for Sigma Mu Sigma. Values of national honor,
which had held them together were increasingly questioned. As the number of
men interested in fraternities shrank at Tri-State, Alpha Chapter increasingly
had trouble competing with the larger nationals on campus. In order to better
compete with the large national fraternities while remaining true to our principles,
the members of Alpha Chapter desided to ally themselves with Acacia,
a large Masonically based fraternity. At present the chapter is inactive.
 Brothers relaxing at the house, 1965  Alpha Brothers doing a community service project in the late 1960s. |
