History of Delta Kappa Epsilon
ΔKE is the oldest secret college fraternity of New England origin. It was founded at Yale College (later changed to University) in 1844, by 15 men of the sophomore class who, upon hearing that some but not all of them had been invited to join the two existing societies, instead chose to form their own fraternity. The fifteen founders were: William Woodruff Atwater, Edward Griffen Bartlett, Frederic Peter Bellinger, Jr., Henry Case, George Foote Chester, John Butler Coyngham, Thomas Isaac Franklin, William Walter Horton, William Boyd Jacobs, Edward Van Schoonhoven Kingsley, Chester Newell Righter, Elisha Bacon Shapleigh, Thomas Du Bois Sherwood, Orson William Snow, and Albert Everett Stetson.
They devised the pin and secret grip, along with the secret and open greek mottos. The open motto is "Kerothen Philoi Aei," meaning "Friends from the Heart Forever."
The DKE pin shows the Greek letters ΔKE on a white scroll upon a black
diamond with gold rope trim and a star in each corner.
DKE's heraldic colours are azure (blue), or (gold), and gules (crimson),
and the flag is a triband of those colours with a left-facing rampant lion
in the middle. This flag has been planted at the North Pole by the first
man there, a Deke named Robert Peary of Theta chapter. The flag has also
been brought to the moon by a Deke named Alan Bean of Omega Chi chapter.
The first Chapter was denoted Phi and is the only fraternity at Yale that has never gone inactive. Within three years of the founding at Yale, chapters were started at Bowdoin, Princeton University, Colby College, and Amherst College. Since that time, DKE has grown to over 64 chapters and has initiated over 85,000 members across North America.
During the Civil War, the first Union officer killed in battle (and, so far as records show, the first soldier to give his life on either side) was a Deke, Theodore Winthrop of Phi. Six weeks after Lee's surrender at Appomattox, Philip Spence of Zeta commanded Confederate troops in their last organized battle of the war. In total, 725 Dekes fought for the South and 817 for the North. No better example can be shown of DKE brotherhood than a non-fiction poem about the Civil War. To read it (and we suggest you do!), please click here.
In the election of 1876, the Republican Party chose between two Dekes, nominating Hayes rather than rival and fellow DKE James G. Blaine, who later authored the Fourteenth Amendment.
During the Spanish-American War, the first American officer to be killed was a Deke, Surgeon John B. Gibbs of Rutgers. At the end of the was was another Deke, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Alpha, who proposed that the Spanish offer of surrender be accepted. Also, one of the negotiators of the ensuing peace treaty was a Deke, Whitelaw Reid of Kappa.
Delta Kappa Epsilon became an international fraternity with the addition of the Alpha Phi chapter in 1898 at the University of Toronto, Canada.
The first American to lose his life in World War I was Paul G. Osborn, a Dartmouth Deke. Jimmy Hawes, with the assistance of the Chief of Staff General Peyton C. March, a Rho Deke, established in Paris a DKE Club to provide a welcome to Dekes back from the frontlines.
In WWII, more than 6,000 Dekes served in the armed forces of the United States and Canada, and over 300 gave their lives.
The fraternity's membership has included dozens of American and Canadian politicians, businessmen, sports figures, and artists who have achieved iconic status. For a list of some distinguished Dekes, please click here.
Delta Kappa Epsilon administers a charitable organization called the Rampant Lion Foundation. DKE has championed an organization call ROAR (Restore Our Associational Rights), which campaigns for the freedom of fraternities and Greek organizations in general to operate without interference and discrimination from university administrations or others.