As we continue to be thankful for the lifting of the pandemic’s gathering restrictions, this March 2022, we have even more to celebrate and remember the many gatherings of Phi Delta Theta through the years.
The first and most important Phi Delta Theta gathering of all time is the small and intimate meeting in that second floor dormitory room, on that cold December night in 1848,
“… when the six met the night of December 26, 1848, in John McMillan Wilson’s second floor room in North Hall, directly above Robert Morrison’s room.
They firmed up their desire to establish a brotherhood. They met two nights later in the same room to consider an appropriate motto and constitution. Morrison and Wilson put the consensus ideas into terminology that became The Bond that every initiate has signed to become a member of the Fraternity.
On December 30, the “Immortal Six” put their signatures to The Bond in Wilson’s room. Their names remain a vital part of the rituals that continue today in every chapter room across the United States and Canada.
As described by Brother Havighurst in his book, “Every Phi knows them as names repeated by candlelight with a sense of belonging to something old, honorable and beneficent.””
For a more detailed description of the earliest days of the Fraternity’s Founding, see Brother Ritter Collett’s chapter on The Founding in the sesquicentennial anniversary history of Phi Delta Theta, In the Bond.
