The George E. Housser Trophy is awarded annually to the top Canadian chapter demonstrating all-around excellence in internal management and chapter operations, campus leadership, and campus participation. The Vancouver Alumni Club presented the trophy at their Founders Day Banquet in 1975. Several Canadian Brothers later rededicated it in 1992 in honor of the late George E. Housser, McGill ’06, President of the General Council (1950–52).

It is only fitting that the “Best Canadian Chapter Award” be named in honor of George Housser. So much credit for Canadian Phi Delta Theta expansion can be attributed to Brother Housser. It was under his initiative that chapters were established in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Halifax.

The original trophy was an original Eskimo soapstone carved by a native artisan from Baffin Island in the Arctic Ocean. The subject was of an Eskimo cleaning a fish and was unusual because few northern soapstones indicated movement or reflected upon man’s activities. The carving rested on a base of Western Walnut. Later, a new trophy was introduced, a Canadian Inuit carving called the Bird Man.

View the historical list of Housser Trophy winners.

The Legion of Honor Award was established in 1978 to recognize a member of Phi Delta Theta who has made a major contribution of his time, effort, and energy to serve the Fraternity and improve its stature; has distinguished himself in representing the Fraternity’s principles of Friendship, Sound Learning and Rectitude; is widely recognized as a leader of fraternity men and identified with the promotion of fraternities; and has widely advanced and enlarged the opportunities for growth and leadership among college men through fraternities.

The Legion of Merit Award honors those outstanding members of Phi Delta Theta who have made a lifelong commitment to the service of Phi Delta Theta. The recipients of this award are not only living testimony that Phi Delta Theta is a “Fraternity for Life,” but they are also the men who give this phrase meaning for so many Phis.

View the historical list of Legion of Honor and Legion of Merit winners.

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The Nance-Millett Award was given to the Fraternity in 1980 by James J. Nance, Ohio Wesleyan 1923, and John D. Millett, DePauw ’33. It is presented every other year to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the free enterprise system. The candidate will preferably be a member of Phi Delta Theta, but membership is not a prerequisite. The recipient is invited to address a session of the General Convention, at which time the award is presented. Nominations may be submitted to the General Headquarters and selections made by the General Council.

View the historical list of the Nance Millett Award winners.

In 1982, the Phi Delta Theta Foundation successfully petitioned the IRS to expand its awards from solely scholarships to educational grants. This petition allowed the Foundation to immediately support aspects of the Fraternity’s efforts, namely the Chapter Consultant Program.

Today, over $400,000 is provided annually to educational programs. These dollars provide annual funding for the Kleberg Emerging Leaders Institute, Shaffer Honors College of Leadership, McKenzie Family Presidents Leadership Conference, Ihlenfeld Online University (PDT U), and the Pursuit of Greatness program. Additionally, new programs are piloted based on member desire. Most recently, the Foundation is sponsoring a partnership with Sonoma State University that allows students to gain college course credit for their participation in Phi Delt conferences.

These programs were all made possible through this change in tax code, therein allowing for the significant expansion of Phi Delta Theta making it the premier leadership Fraternity that it is today.

The General Council adopted ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, as philanthropy of Phi Delta Theta late in 1983.

That action was taken to tribute to Keith R. Worthington, Missouri ’53, who waged a gallant eleven-year struggle against the disease. He was well known and respected in Kansas City, where he helped establish the local ALS support group.

Worthington was a good friend of George Brett, the tremendous third baseman of the Kansas City Royals. Brett got involved in ALS support and was a deserving winner of the Fraternity’s Lou Gehrig Award in 1986.

Phi Delta Theta’s close affiliation with ALS was affirmed when a trio of brothers served on the board of the ALS Association. The three were Bob Biggs, Georgia Southern ’76, Warner A. Peck III, Wabash ’69, and Andrew J. Soffel, Pittsburgh ’52. Later, Robert S. Mclnnes, Dalhousie ’85, would serve on the Canadian ALS board, and Jonathan M. Harris, Toronto ’86, would be elected its president.

In 2018, Phi Delta Theta and the grassroots organization LiveLikeLou, founded by Phi Delt Brother Neil Alexander, joined forces to launch The LiveLikeLou Foundation, a stand-alone 501c3 not-for-profit entity with a national scope and a renewed purpose.

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Read the article from the Fall 1983 edition of The Scroll

Early in the 1980s, and perhaps a few years earlier, Fraternity leaders noticed that the waves of litigation everywhere in society could make chapters and general officers vulnerable to complaints of any kind. Any accident on Fraternity property or any real or imagined discrimination could trigger such actions.

Each chapter was asked to submit a certificate of insurance coverage, but none was adequately covered.

So, the General Council voted to establish a mandatory insurance program.

The mandatory insurance program took effect in 1984 under the direction of William ‘Rusty’ Richardson, Tampa ’80, then handling alumni affairs at General Headquarters. He negotiated the initial policy with a Colorado insurance firm specializing in fraternity business. The initial cost to individual chapters was $12 per man. By the 1996–97 school year, each chapter was assessed $140 per man to cover the annual $1.2 million insurance cost.

Today, because of the Fraternity’s proactive risk management actions, Phi Delta Theta is proud to have the lowest insurance rates in the industry.

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Read the article about the Fraternity’s adoption of an insurance program from the Spring 1985 edition of The Scroll. 

 

The first Leadership College was held in 1987. The conference, held in Oxford, Ohio, was intended to be a flagship conference for the sole purpose of developing leadership skills for Phi Delta Theta undergraduate students. This extended weekend event replaced the former Chapter Officers’ and Advisers’ Conference programs that were held throughout the academic year on several weekends at a variety of campus locations.

The conference was held biennially until 1992 when it became an annual event, held every year except for 2003. In 2004, the Leadership College was renamed the Emerging Leaders Institute, and in 2012, the Kleberg Emerging Leaders Institute.

The inaugural Leadership College in 1987 brought together members from across the United States and Canada to learn more about the Fraternity, leadership skills, and the great traditions on which Phi Delta Theta was founded. There were 440 individuals involved with the leadership seminars and sessions at the first Leadership College.

Today’s Leadership Colleges, now the Kleberg Emerging Leaders Institute, continue to be held every summer on the Miami University campus. They include daily general sessions, small-group chapter meetings, chapter award presentations, ceremonies, leadership and education seminars, group meals, and bonding between faculty, alumni, and undergraduate Phis.

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Read the recap article from the inaugural Leadership College in the Winter 1987-88 edition of The Scroll

The West Virginia Beta Chapter of Phi Delta Theta at Marshall University became the Fraternity’s two hundredth chapter, installed on Saturday, April 25, 1987.

General Council President C. Tal Bray, South Florida ’65, and Director of Chapter Services Robert A. Biggs, Georgia Southern ’76, directed the ceremonies. On Friday, April 24, twenty-five members were initiated into Phi Delta Theta.

The installation of West Virginia Beta marked the realization of a dream which began in the late winter of 1985. Marshall University had been considering several fraternities they could invite to start a chapter at Marshall, and Phi Delta Theta was the one they chose. From there, Phi Delta Theta General Headquarters sent two chapter consultants to Marshall to get a core group started.

Brothers in the core group started recruiting other men at Marshall and finally installed twenty-two men as colony members.

The group petitioned the General Council for colony status. Colony status was granted to West Virginia Beta Colony on April 8, 1986.

At 10 a.m. Saturday, West Virginia Beta was formally installed as a chapter of Phi Delta Theta at United Otterbein Methodist Church. Approximately seventy-five people attended the installation, including fraternity and sorority presidents, alumni and their wives, parents, and university officials.

Brother Martin Taylor, president of West Virginia Beta (1986–87), received the charter from Bray on behalf of the brothers of West Virginia Beta.

Sam Simon, Stanford ’75, was an American director, producer, writer, boxing manager, and philanthropist. While at Stanford University, Simon worked as a newspaper cartoonist and, after graduating, became a storyboard artist at Filmation Studios. He submitted a spec script for the sitcom Taxi, which was produced, and later became the series showrunner. Over the next few years, Simon wrote and produced for Cheers, It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, and other programs, as well as writing the 1991 film The Super.

In 1989, Simon developed the animated sitcom The Simpsons with Matt Groening and James L. Brooks. Simon assembled the show’s first writing team, co-wrote eight episodes, and has been credited with “developing [the show’s] sensibility.” The Simpsons premiered on the Fox network in 1989 and has remained on the air ever since. The show is regarded as one of the greatest television shows of all time, with TIME magazine naming it the 20th century’s best series. In addition, it is the longest-running sitcom in television history.

Simon left the show in 1993. The following year he co-created The George Carlin Show before later working as a director on shows such as The Drew Carey Show. Simon won nine Primetime Emmy Awards for his television work.

Mr. Simon put his money toward his passions. He started a foundation that trained dogs to help disabled people, including veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He gave generously to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, among other groups. As a result, PETA’s headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, was renamed the Sam Simon Center in 2013.

After Mr. Simon learned he had cancer, he announced his intention to give nearly all his “Simpsons” royalties to charity. “I’ve given most of it away,” he said in 2013 when asked about his wealth on the comedian Marc Maron’s podcast. “I won’t be rich again until we get our quarterly installment from The Simpsons. ”

James Addison Baker III, Texas ’57, was named by then President-Elect George Bush to be the United States’ new secretary of state almost immediately following Bush’s victory in the November 1998 elections.

Baker served in senior government positions under three United States presidents. He served as the nation’s sixty-first secretary of state from January 1989 through August 1992 under President George Bush. During his tenure at the State Department, Baker traveled to ninety foreign countries as the United States confronted the unprecedented challenges and opportunities of the post-Cold War era.

Under President Ronald Reagan, Baker served as the sixty-seventh secretary of the Treasury from 1985 to 1988. As treasury secretary, he was chairman of the president’s Economic Policy Council. From 1981 to 1985, he served as White House chief of staff to President Reagan. Baker’s record of public service began in 1975 as undersecretary of Commerce to President Gerald Ford. It concluded with his service as White House chief of staff and senior counselor to President Bush from August 1992 to January 1993.

Long active in American presidential politics, Baker led presidential campaigns for Presidents Ford, Reagan, and Bush over five consecutive presidential elections from 1976 to 1992.

A native Houstonian, Baker graduated from Princeton University in 1952. After two years of active duty as a lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps, he entered The University of Texas School of Law at Austin. He received his JD with honors in 1957 and practiced law with the Houston firm of Andrews and Kurth from 1957 to 1975.

Baker’s memoir, Work Hard, Study . . . and Keep Out of Politics! Adventures and Lessons from an Unexpected Public Life was published in October 2006.

Baker received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991 and has been the recipient of many other awards for distinguished public service, including Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson Award, The American Institute for Public Service’s Jefferson Award, Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government Award, The Hans J. Morgenthau Award, The George F. Kennan Award, the Department of the Treasury’s Alexander Hamilton Award, the Department of State’s Distinguished Service Award, and numerous honorary academic degrees.

Baker is presently a senior partner in the law firm of Baker Botts. He is the honorary chairman of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University and serves on the Howard Hughes Medical Institute board. From 1997 to 2004, Baker served as the personal envoy of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in seeking a political solution to the conflict over Western Sahara. In 2003, Baker was appointed special presidential envoy for President George W. Bush on the issue of Iraqi debt. In 2005, he was co-chair, with former President Jimmy Carter, of the Commission on Federal Election Reform. In 2006, Baker and former US Congressman Lee H. Hamilton served as the co-chairs of the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan blue-ribbon panel on Iraq. In 2008, Mr. Baker and the late Secretary of State Warren Christopher served as co-chairs of the National War Powers Commission.

Baker was born in Houston, Texas, in 1930. He and his wife, the former Susan Garrett, reside in Houston and have eight children and nineteen grandchildren.