The Valley of the Sun Alumni Club created the Phoenix Award in 2002 to recognize a chapter that has shown dramatic improvement over the course of one academic year. The award was named after the mythological bird that periodically regenerated itself which is used in literature as a symbol of death and resurrection.

View the historical list of Phoenix Trophy winners.

Phi Delta Theta’s General John Kerry J.K. Davis Award is presented to a member of Phi Delta Theta for outstanding service in defense of liberty as a member of the Armed Forces. Brother Davis, New Mexico ’51, served as assistant commandant of the Marine Corps and retired as a four-star general of the United States Marine Corps. J.K. served in the Vietnam War, was a naval aviator, and served as the commanding general of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. He flew 285 combat hours in the Republic of Vietnam (160 at night) and 171 combat missions (100 at night).

View the historical list of J.K. Davis Award winners.

The Trustees of the Phi Delta Theta Foundation publicly announced a $7 million dollar campaign during the 2006 Convention, a campaign that would conclude during the 2008 Convention as the Foundation celebrated its the 50th anniversary.

The purpose of the campaign, “Leadership for a Lifetime—The Campaign for Phi Delta Theta” was to provide additional endowment support for the leadership and educational programs as well as additional scholarships and fellowships provided by the Foundation.

The “Leadership for a Lifetime” campaign increased funding to the following current and proposed leadership programs:

Leadership College

Presidents Leadership Conference

The Accolade Member Development Program

Leadership Consultant Program

Scholarships and Fellowships

Ongoing Annual Support for Leadership Initiatives

At the 2008 Convention in Paradise Valley, Arizona, the Phi Delta Theta Foundation hosted the Leadership for a Lifetime Banquet where it announced its successful $7 million capital campaign.

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The Missouri Theta Chapter of Phi Delta Theta at Northwest Missouri State University became the Fraternity’s two hundred fiftieth chapter, installed on Saturday, April 30, 2005. On Friday, April 29, thirty-three members were initiated into Phi Delta Theta.

The men of Missouri Theta had a number of accomplishments during their installation year including having the highest GPA amongst all Greek letter organizations on campus and winning Fraternity of the Year.

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At the 2004 General Convention, new General Council President Michael G. Scarlatelli, Kettering ’76, delivered an address at the closing banquet that focused on the increased hazing incidents and fatalities across the nation within the Greek community and the need for Phi Delta Theta to embark on an anti-hazing initiative within the Fraternity. As mentioned by Scarlatelli, “While it may be impossible to completely eliminate every corner of hazing, it is our intent to significantly reduce any hazing in our chapters by providing continual education and positive Phikeia program activities to our chapters.”

Starting in the late summer of 2004 at the first meeting of the General Council, much time was devoted to the topic of hazing to develop a plan of action for the Fraternity. A letter was penned to the parents of the Fraternity’s undergraduates and sent just prior to the Thanksgiving holiday to garner their support and elicit conversation with their son on the topic. This letter was immediately followed up with one to the Fraternity’s chapter presidents, chapter advisory boards, house corporations, and general officers that reinforced the Fraternity’s position on hazing and began to introduce the Hazing Amnesty program along with upcoming plans for the Presidents Leadership Conference, General Officers Conference, and Emerging Leaders Institute. Concurrently, Phi Delta Theta developed its anti-hazing theme, “Don’t Tarnish the Badge.”

At the 2005 Presidents Leadership Conference in St. Louis, the General Council announced their “Don’t Tarnish the Badge” anti-hazing campaign. Much of the program at PLC was focused on creating new Phikeia education programs that were free of any questionable activities that could be considered hazing. The following weekend, Don’t Tarnish the Badge was rolled out at the General Officers Conference.

After the initial rollout, Phi Delta Theta continued to solidify its amnesty program communication around the hazing topic, included hazing as one of its ‘three pillars’ for the Emerging Leadership Institute; and created a more comprehensive messaging for National Hazing Prevention Week.

On May 21, 2006, Billy Payne, Georgia ’69 was named chairman of Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters Tournament. Through the late 1980s and early 1990s, Payne was a leading advocate for bringing the Olympic Games to Atlanta and, in 1996, Payne was named president and chief executive officer of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG).

During his tenure as Chairman of Augusta National Golf Club, Payne was a collaborative presence, bringing together golf’s leading institutions to implement new ways to expand the reach of the game, such as his vision for the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, Latin America Amateur Championship and the Drive, Chip and Putt Championship. He worked to make the sport more welcoming, including the addition of women into the Club’s membership and the creation of the popular Junior Pass Program during the Masters. In keeping with the tradition of constant improvement established by Clifford Roberts and Bobby Jones, Payne directed the significant expansion and development of the Augusta National campus, leading to the creation and improvement of numerous facilities and services enjoyed by the membership and visitors to the Tournament. He also encouraged innovation, especially through the development of digital media offerings and emerging television technologies, in an effort to help reach new and younger audiences.

As a graduate of MIT, Drew Houston, MIT ’05, had a knack for how the world works. He constructed an idea and started writing the first lines of code at a train station in Boston in 2007. He and his friend, Arash Ferdowsi, decided they were sick of emailing files to themselves to work from another computer. He claimed existing services at the time “suffered problems with Internet latency, large files, bugs, or just made me think too much.” He realized he was not the only one who suffered these problems, leading to the Dropbox solution.

Dropbox is a service allowing anyone to upload photos, documents, and videos, whether they are on a desktop, laptop, tablet, or mobile phone. There are also share options, making working in groups or collaborating with partners easier. Dropbox saw steady user growth after its inception. It surpassed the 1 million registered users milestone in April 2009, followed by 2 million in September and 3 million in November. It passed 50 million users in October 2011, 100 million in November 2012, 500 million in 2016, and 700 million in 2021.

Born in Acton, Massachusetts, in 1983, Drew attended Acton-Boxborough Regional High School and later went on to Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was a member of the Phi Delta Theta. Before working on Dropbox, he worked on other startups, including Bit9, Accolade, and Hubspot. Drew constantly thinks of new ideas and is usually found running Dropbox’s business affairs. He still contributes to the client software and has compiled a team of hard workers to continue building the concept.

As there exists a significant volunteer and staff structure to oversee the operations of the International Fraternity, so too exists a group of alumni organized to oversee operations of the Fraternity’s interests on a local level. These local alumni organize to maintain chapter houses and keep the brotherhood alive well beyond the undergraduate years.

In order to help accomplish this feat, in 2008, the True Blue Society was created to provide resources for Fraternity volunteers, general alumni, and The Scroll. The True Blue Society operates similar to an alumni loyalty association at college or universities. Alumni who wish to help support the Fraternity’s alumni programming can become a True Blue Phi for a one-time membership fee. In addition to knowing that they are helping their Fraternity, members also receive a number of other membership benefits, including The Scroll.

Unfortunately, the contributions to the Mitchell Fund stopped in 1981 due to change in tax code and this fund was no longer sufficient alone to continually support the publishing and mailing of a printed Scroll in perpetuity. Therefore, the decision was made to change the delivery method of the lifetime subscription to be electronic. This also cut down on the Fraternity’s overall use of paper and helped address the ever-rising production, printing, and postage costs. Now funds from both the Mitchell Fund and the True Blue Society support The Scroll.

Iron Phi was developed in 2010 to strengthen Phi Delta Theta and its impact on the fight against Lou Gehrig’s disease. Through participants’ fundraising efforts on the way to achieving personal athletic goals, Iron Phi is creating a community of philanthropists who hope to leave ALS better than they found it.

To become an Iron Phi, participants must select an athletic endeavor of their choice, raise $1,000 through the Iron Phi website, and accomplish the physical effort. Dollars raised through the Iron Phi program equally support two major beneficiaries, the LiveLikeLou Foundation and Phi Delta Theta.

Lou Gehrig was known as the ‘Iron Horse’ during his baseball career because of his durability and perseverance. His prowess as a hitter, consecutive games-played record (2,130), and never-give-up attitude after being stricken with ALS inspired those around him. In the spirit of Brother Gehrig, the name Iron Phi was given to the initiative to encourage those involved to remember Lou’s approach to life when setting out to achieve something.

Since 2010, the program has raised more than $3.2 million, and over 1,500 individuals have become Iron Phis.

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Baseball has Cooperstown, New York; football has Canton, Ohio; basketball can be found in Springfield, Massachusetts, and hockey in Toronto, Canada. But in June of 2010, Orlando’s General Convention hosted the Phi Delta Theta Sports Hall of Fame unveiling.

Phi Delta Theta created the Sports Hall of Fame to honor and recognize members of Phi Delta Theta who impacted the world of amateur, collegiate, or professional sports while living and exhibiting the three Cardinal Principles of the Fraternity.

The inaugural class was recognized during the opening session of the 78th Biennial Convention during an extraordinary awards ceremony honoring Lou Gehrig, Ritter Collett, Tom Harmon, Grantland Rice, Harry Kalas, Gary Bender, and Mike Mathis.

View the historical list of Phi Delta Theta Sports Hall of Fame members.