Chapter 1:

"Alpha Tau Omega holds before the young men of the country an ideal and something greater than a mere intellectual ideal. Alpha Tau Omega stands for heart as well as head. It has given men a true ideal of life."

Alpha Tau Omega began as an idea in the mind of a young Civil War veteran who wanted peace and reconciliation. His name was Otis Allan Glazebrook. His people were defeated, many of their cities burned, much of their countryside ravaged. But Glazebrook, who had helped bury the dead of both sides, believed in a better future. He saw the bitterness and hatred that followed the silencing of the guns and knew that a true peace would come not from force of law, but rather from with the hearts of men who were willing to work to rekindle a spirit of brotherly love.

Most people weren't ready for sermons on brotherly love. John Wise, a classmate of Glazebrook's at Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia, and a member of Beta Theta Pi, put it this way when he wrote of that time: "For four years we had been fighting. In that struggle, all we loved had been lost... in blood and flame and torture the temples of our lives were tumbling about our head... we were poor, starved, conquered, despairing; and to expect men to have no malice and no vindictiveness at such a time is to look for angels in human form."

Glazebrook, deeply religious at age 19, believed that younger men like himself might be more willing to accept, forgive, and reunite with the Northern counterparts if motivated by Christian, brotherly love. But he needed an organization, a means of gathering and organizing like-minded people. That was why a letter caught his attention. As cadet adjunct for the VMI Cadet Corps, Glazebrook routinely handled mail addressed to the Institute's Superintendent, General Francis H. Smith. One such letter came from an official of a leading northern fraternity who wanted help in reviving his southern chapters. (The South lost all 142 of its fraternity chapters during the war, and it was only with great effort that they were revived and expanded.) Fascinated, Glazebrook asked Gen. Smith about fraternities. As Gen. Smith explained what they were, Glazebrook knew he had found his organization.

In Richmond, Glazebrook consulted with University of Virginia alumni who furnished further information concerning fraternities. He discovered that they were not Greek in name only, but Greek throughout. Their mottoes, besides being written in Greek, reflected Greek ideals.

Greek philosophy, sometimes tinged with the medieval mysteries and Masonic lore, waste the cultural ideal of the fraternities. Glazebrook had been a proficient student of Greek at Randolph-Macon College before he entered the Institute. While admiring the language he recoiled from Greek Philosophy, ideology, mythologies, ethics and morals.

Reared in a devout Christian home, confirmed at historic St. Paul's in Richmond, he had served as a lay reader in St. Mark's. Essentially a religious man, typical of his time, he believed implicitly in more government of the universe, convinced that morals are of God, ordained by Him. He thought and taught, in its highest and noblest manifestations is the unique and supreme gift of Jesus Christ.

Glazebrook could contemplate fraternity only in terms of Christian love. Out of his prolonged meditation emerged the concept of a fraternity Greek in name only; the Greek name, the visible symbol of passionate conviction that peace and brotherhood could be achieved under the protection of Jesus Christ.

The name came spontaneously. As a boy and youth in St. Paul's and St. Mark's, Glazebrook had seen the ancient insignia of the Church, first discovered in the ancient catacombs, depicted upon their walls, ceilings, or other ecclesiastical objects, the Tau Cross subjoined by Alpha and Omega. "Alpha" and "Omega" signify to the Christian absolute plenitude or perfection. "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." Joined with the Cross the whole signifies that Christ is all in all, the beginning and end of salvation.

Having projected a Christian fraternity and appropriated a distinctively Christian symbol for its name, the Cross naturally was its logical emblem. For it, Glazebrook selected a form he though was the Maltese Cross, though actually it is the heraldic cross pattee. In the center he inscribed a crescent, three stars, the Tau Cross and clasped hands. Upon the upper and lower vertical arms he placed the Greek letters for Alpha and Omega and upon the horizontal arms, the Omega and Alpha letters respectively.

Reading from top to bottom the fraternity's name appears. Alpha Tau Omega, Reading left to right it becomes Omega Tau Alpha. This reverse arrangement has an esoteric significance to the initiate, but does no violence to the essential meaning of the insignia; it still indicates that Christ the beginning and end are joined.

On September 11, 1865, Glazebrook invited two close friends to his home at 114 East Clay Street in Richmond, Virginia. There, in the rear parlor, he read them the Constitution he had written and invited them to sign. As they did, Alpha Tau Omega was born. It was the first fraternity founded after the Civil War, and the first sign of Greek life in the old Confederacy.

Glazebrook had chosen his co-founders well. Alfred Marshall, a friend of Glazebrook's from boyhood, was first captain of the VMI Cadet Corps and a popular individual. He was the spirited man of the trio, the man of action, the one most likely to attract new members. Erskine Mayo Ross, who ultimately became a federal judge, gave a sense of order to the meeting. He could curb the sometimes reckless energies of Marshall without dampening the charge of Glazebrook's ideas. The three formed a well-balanced group.

Chapter 3:

"Alpha Tau Omega holds before the young men of the country an ideal and something greater than a mere intellectual ideal. Alpha Tau Omega stands for heart as well as head. It has given men a true ideal of life."

From 1878 - 1895 "more chapters" was the Fraternity's goal. Now ATO began flexing its muscles. With a High Council to investigate institutions of higher learning, ATO was able to issue charters with more assurance. For a time, it was even possible to found a new chapter through the mail. All it took was a due inquiry and consultation with National Officers. Once satisfied the chapter would be a strong one, the officer to whom a grant had been issued might send the charter, Constitution, and secret work by registered mail. The chapter would return a signed oath of secrecy, and the founding officer would send the key to the cipher, by the fastest means available and the group would the initiate itself!

All fraternities were expanding rapidly. Students were enjoying new freedoms, and the fraternity system fit right in. Colleges during this era grew more tolerant of student activity — recreational, athletic, and social. It was only natural that membership in Greek-letter societies swelled and competition for the best freshmen grew. ATO gladly joined in the rush for new members.

This was the era when pledgeship got its start. Through the mid-1870s, there was not such thing as pledgeship. Chapters observed prospective members for weeks or even months — then, when satisfied, invited them to join. If selected, you might be awakened in the middle of the night, asked to become an ATO, and hustled off to be initiated the moment you accepted.

In an 1885 Palm, though, a revealing article appears. There is a problem, it seems, with the new initiate who never bothers to "acquaint himself with the origin, history, progress, and present condition of his Fraternity." Thus, apathy grows within the chapter.

Given the rush for new members, fraternities found themselves with less time in which to judge a new man. If they picked their members too early, they might not get what they expected. If they waited too long, other fraternities would snap up the best men. The solution was a sort of waiting period whereby a new man might be "pledged" to join a fraternity. This would keep him safe from competitors, but allow him and his prospective chapter a chance to really get to know one another.

It was Larkin W. Glazebrook, Mercer 1880, who applied the brakes. The younger Glazebrook, son of the Founder, was elected Worthy Grand Chief in 1895. His goal was the consolidation of existing chapters — improving their quality and living conditions.

One of the most important steps taken toward that end was the development of the Province system. Chapters did better when alumni came by regularly to visit and advise the undergraduates, so the Fraternity decided to make an institution of the practice. Province Chiefs were appointed on a provisional basis in 1899. Their job was to act as deputies of the Worthy Grand Chief, visiting their chapters and offering guidance. The Worthy Grand Chief might then concentrate on long-range matters, free from the constant travel and correspondence of older days. The system worked so well that the 1890 Congress made it official, and ATO's far-flung chapters now had the assistance of regular alumni visits and supervision.

The Fraternity's oldest chapter houses date from about this time, for chapters were encouraged to build. By now, ATO possessed thousands of alumni able to devote time and money to fund-raising drives. Colleges frequently encouraged the trend in order to help provide much-needed housing at a time when enrollments ballooned.

The University of the South (Sewanee) chapter was the first ATO chapter with a house and the first of any fraternity in the South. Actually a lodge, the building was an early University library donated to the chapter in 1880 "in recognition of service rendered to the University."

Despite ATO's conservative outlook, it still granted charters to promising interest groups and by 1916 boasted 67 chapters from coast to coast. That was gratifying, but it presented a new problem: administration. From the Fraternity's founding, its correspondence had been written, its treasury kept, and its archives preserved by individual National Officers. They received no remuneration beyond travel expenses. Records of great value were kept in officers' homes, taken to Congress, transferred to new Officers, and dumped into trunks for the trip to their new homes. The 1916 Congress appropriated a small budget for a central office and amended the Constitution to authorize the High Council to open the office and employ an Executive Secretary.

World War I forced the issue. When several key National Officers entered the service, the High Council knew the time had come to act. It hired a University of Illinois professor of English, Dr. Frank W. Scott, Illinois, to be ATO's first, albeit part-time, Executive Secretary. Dr. Scott set up his office in Champaign, Illinois, and vital records began arriving from across the nation. Even those initially opposed to the expense of a central office were ready to call it the most important event in recent years. For the first time, the Fraternity had a "home," which remained in Champaign until the 1990's.

Chapter 5:

"Alpha Tau Omega holds before the young men of the country an ideal and something greater than a mere intellectual ideal. Alpha Tau Omega stands for heart as well as head. It has given men a true ideal of life."

The economic crisis the Fraternity faced was formidable. Despite a growing number of chapters, a drop in overall membership brought revenues down and money was simply not available for business as usual. Several chapters had to be closed.

At the 1974 November High Council Meeting, the Chapter Services staff was reduced from seven men to three and the clerical/support staff was reduced to three. Former staff members who speak of that time refer to it as the "November Massacre." It is refreshing to note that many of the men who were so suddenly let go, in the years since, served the Fraternity in one or more volunteer capacities. The spirit of fraternity in the men who serve ATO is not easily dampened. This is undoubtedly a key to the strength and resilience of the Brotherhood.

Worthy Grand Chief William Berry, Ole Miss, was instrumental in 1977 in bringing to the National Headquarters a new Executive Director, Stephen R. Siders, Purdue. Siders was to have a remarkable 11-plus year tenure which saw the Fraternity reach new heights of success and recognition in the Greek world. Tough-minded in his approach, Siders demonstrated an unfailing single-mindedness in managing an ever-increasing Fraternity budget and in positioning ATO in the forefront of national fraternities. He is well known for his efforts to maintain high levels of chapter compliance with Fraternity law and the rules of host institutions. Never satisfied with the status quo, Siders was the prime mover in the acquisition of a new, greatly expanded, ATO National Headquarters to 4001 W. Kirby Avenue in West Champaign. In 1980, ATO decided to move to a facility that offered some 3,000 square-feet more office space, a convenient, one-story layout, and 10 acres of ground to grow on. The building's interior was completely remodeled and the new headquarters was dedicated in May, 1982.

Siders saw his mission as moving ATO to the forefront of the Greek movement. His constant prodding of staff and volunteers to take risks and to put ATO in a leadership position was the catalyst in changing ATO from a relatively staid to a dynamic organization. He instilled a commitment to planning by ATO's volunteer leaders and staff, a commitment which continues today.

Chapter 7:

"Alpha Tau Omega holds before the young men of the country an ideal and something greater than a mere intellectual ideal. Alpha Tau Omega stands for heart as well as head. It has given men a true ideal of life."

Wm. Brian Ruyle, Stephen F. Austin, was elected National President at the New Orleans Congress in 1992. His terms marked an accelerated rate of change within the Fraternity. As the boom of the 80s gave way to declining membership in the 90s, the Fraternity became aggressive in its belief that ATO must be more relevant to college men or face a diminished future. Ruyle knew that ATO's deeper meanings...those truths contained within the Ritual...needed to play a more prominent role in everyday chapter life.

Thomas M. Schneider, DePauw, succeeded Thorsby as executive director. Schneider believed as Glazebrook, that true brotherhood was anchored in love demonstrated by Jesus Christ. During Schneider's tenure, the Fraternity carefully began moving back toward its heritage. ATO welcomes men of all faiths into the Brotherhood. However, the Fraternity cannot ignore or try to hide its founders' deeply held beliefs that "Jesus Christ is the Way the Truth and the Life."

Schneider was responsible for ATO's membership in a select group of national fraternities making up the Fraternity Insurance Trust. F.I.T., later reorganized as FRMT, Inc. Members demonstrated they could successfully manage the risk inherent in operating a fraternity chapter. A record number of chapters were closed between 1992 and 1994. Most lost their charters only after members demonstrated an unwillingness to correct problems.

By the end of 1994, M. Scott Gilpin, Oklahoma State, had replaced Schneider as the Fraternity's executive and the Fraternity Board of Directors and the Foundation Board of Governors had adopted a vision that would dramatically change the organization.

One component of the vision that had the greatest impact on the Fraternity was the creation of boards of trustees. A group of alumni, parents, faculty and community leaders makes up a local board of trustees. The Board's mission is to provide encouragement and accountability for its chapter.