1953–54 Volume 78 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

Phi Delta Theta in Who's Who
By PAUL C. BEAM, Executive Secretary
FOLLOWING a summer-long search
through the 1952-53 volume of Who's
Who in America, consisting of 2,976 pages
and over 44,000 listings, we are now pre-
• pared to report again, as upon previous
occasions, that $ A © does not need to
apologize for failing to develop distinguished
citizens. This is to say that the current
edition of Who's Who reveals the fact
ijiat 680, or about one out of every 65
whose biographies are listed, is a proud
wearer of the Sword and Shield. Or, to put
it another way, it may be said that approximately
11 out of every 1,000 living members
of $ A © are listed.
Who's Who in America was first published
in 1897. In the intervening years it
has come to be accepted as an authoritative
reference book of biographical information
concerning notable persons. The standards
of admission are divided into two classifications:
(1) Those persons selected for their
prominence in creditable lines of effort,
making them the subjects of extensive interest,
inquiry, or discussion and (2) those
persons included arbitrarily because of official
positions in the business world, in
government, in the armed forces or in
religious and educational activities. It may
be concluded, then, that not all great and
successful people are listed but most of
those persons who are likely to be inquired
about are.
In our long journey through Who's Who,
tabulations were also made for nine of
$ A ©'s principal rivals whose total membership
offers a reasonably fair comparison
with ours. The ten fraternities included in
the survey have a combined membership of
615,645 for an average of 61,565 members
per fraternity. For obvious reasons we shall
refrain from naming the rival groups under
review in presenting these tabulations:
Fraternity
Listings
PHI DELTA THETA 645*
Fraternity B 624
Fraternity C 534
Fraternity D 509
Fraternity E 480
[9=]
Fraternity F 477
Fraternity G 394
Fraternity H 371
Fraternity I 347
• Fraternity J 308
* The total number who identified themselves as
members of Phi Delta Theta. It should be pointed
out that only those "Who's Whoers" who identified
themselves as a member of one or another of the
above fraternities are included in the above tabulations.
It has often been said that figures don't
lie, but we would be twisting the facts to
suit our own purposes if it were not made
clear that * A 0 did not lead the field when
it comes to the ratio of men in Who's Who
in relation to total membership. Here's the
way the chart appears on such a basis:
Fraternity Total Membership Ratio
Fraternity D 43.400 1-85
Fraternity B 54,081 1-87
PHI DELTA THETA .. 77,297 1-120
Fraternity J 39425 1-128
, Fraternity H 48,729 1131
Fraternity F 69,532 1-146
Fraternity G 61,160 1-155
Fraternity E 74,707 1-156
Fraternity C 84,314 1-158
Fraternity I 63,000 1-181
•
Within our own family of chapters, the
Vanderbilt Phis cannot fail to be elated
over the fact that Tennessee Alpha leads
all * A 0 chapters with a total of 22 listings.
Hard on their heels, however, are New
York Delta (dormant since 1935) at Colurtibia
University, and Ohio Beta at Ohio
Wesleyan University with 21 and 20 listings
respectively. We hope that the tabulations
by chapter which follow will be of absorbing
interest to Phis everywhere. It is also our
hope that the chapter lists will be carefully
scrutinized for any possible errors of omission
or commission and that such errors will
be promptly reported to the General Headquarters.
It is realized that a few of those named
in the following list are now dead, but this
applies also to other fraternities included in
the survey. Who's Who continues to carry
the names of deceased persons for a period.