Our local brotherhood began in October 1924 when Charles William
Reiley met with two friends in Pawling Hall men's dormitory and decided
to start a new fraternity on campus. The trio quickly recruited ten others and
the Quiet Thirteen Club was born, with Reiley as president. Soon thereafter
they changed their name to Gamma Tau Alpha (GTA)
fraternity.
In May 1928 GTA was chartered as the Kentucky-Alpha chapter of Theta Kappa Nu (QKN), a national fraternity. In 1939 QKN merged with Lambda Chi Alpha, and our chapter was renamed Kappa-Omega Zeta (chapter).
Before 1950, the fraternity occupied various houses on Military St., Jackson St.,
Estil Court, and Main St. The chapter acquired a permanent house in 1950 at
529 Main St. This house served as the fraternity's home until all fraternities and
sororities moved into new on-campus houses in 1971.
Active membership rose to over 100 in the mid seventies, and fell briefly to below twenty in the late eighties, reflecting the rise and fall of the Greek system on Georgetown's campus during that time.
No history of our chapter would be complete without recognizing Dr. Ralph Curry,
a professor of English at Georgetown initiated as a faculty member in 1952.
Dr. Curry served as High Pi (Chancellor and Advisor) of the chapter for thirty-three
years, and was a mentor, exemplar and friend to hundreds of Kappa-Omega brothers.
In 1970 Dr. Curry was honored by the general fraternity with the Order of Merit
in recognition of his service to LCA. Since his passing
in 1995 he has been honored by Kappa-Omega brothers and Georgetown College by
renaming the chapter's house/dorm "Curry House" and by one of the large concrete
medallions on the exterior of the new Ensor Learning Resource Center (library).
Since the early nineties, LCA has been the largest and most active fraternity on Georgetown's campus. The chapter has won numerous local and national awards, including the Grand High Alpha Award in 1993, 1996, 1999, 2002 and 2005. GHA recognizes the top LCA chapter in the nation, out of over 200 chapters, and may be won only every three years. In 2003 Kappa-Omega was recognized by the National Interfraternity Conference as one of the top chapters of all national fraternities.
For a more detailed history of the chapter, and of fraternities at Georgetown, please visit our Chapter History website.
Lambda Chi Alpha was founded in 1909 at Boston University by Warren A. Cole,
a first-generation college student with a strong desire to challenge the "blue blood" fraternity
system of his day by starting a new brotherhood based on Christian ideals and a strong work ethic.
Cole's dogged determination and refusal to give up when faced with early failures
was finally rewarded with success, culminating in an assembly of the first seven
chapters held on March 22, 1913. The work of this assembly has been recognized
with such importance that it is now celebrated as the fraternity's Founders Day.
John E. "Jack" Mason, a charter member of our third chapter, at the University of
Pennsylvania, was the principle
author and designer of the fraternity's spiritual basis, its rituals and emblems.
Being a "perfectionist," Mason wanted only the best for the new brotherhood. He delved
into research and study of fraternal organizations, their rituals, history, and heraldry
with a vengeance. His research produced a Coat-of-Arms which, unlike those of most other
fraternities, follows the strict rules of the art of heraldry. His ritualistic research
resulted in a work so inspiring that LCA gained a reputation
early-on for taking otherwise "unknown" students and turning them into a group of
recongnized high-achievers on their campus.
The Theta Kappa Nu national fraternity was founded in 1924 as a union of eleven
local fraternities primarily from small private colleges. Theta Kappa Nu merged
with Lambda Chi Alpha in 1939, adding 28 new active chapters and over 8,000 alumni to
LCA, the largest such merger in the history of national fraternities.
In 1972, LCA became the first national fraternity to abolish the "pledge" system, which treated new members as second-class members, and replace it with associate membership, where new members are treated as full-members in all matters except those involving the ritual.
Since its humble beginnings, the fraternity has established chapters or colonies at over 300 college campuses in the U.S. and Canada, and is now one of the largest, though youngest, international fraternities in existence.
Visit the history page at the general fraternity's website for more information.