Alpha Tau Omega
ATΩ (Alpha Tau Omega) is an
American fraternity. It annually ranks among the top ten national fraternities for number of chapters and total number of members. ATO has more than 240 active and inactive chapters with more than 181,000 members and more than 6,500 undergraduate members. ATO has come to be known as the foremost leadership fraternity in the nation. ATO is also one-third of the
Lexington Fraternity Triad, along with
Kappa Alpha Order and
Sigma Nu.
"To bind men together in a brotherhood based upon eternal and immutable principles, with a bond as strong as right itself and as lasting as humanity; to know no North, no South, no East, no West, but to know man as man, to teach that true men the world over should stand together and contend for supremecy of good over evil; to teach, not politics, but morals; to foster, not partisanship, but the recognition of true merit wherever found; to have no narrower limits within which to work together for the elevation of man than the outlines of the world: these were the thoughts and hopes uppermost in the minds of the founders of the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity." -Otis Allan Glazebrook 1880
Alpha Tau Omega began as an idea in the mind of a young
American Civil War veteran who wanted peace and reconciliation. His name was Otis Allan Glazebrook. His people were defeated, many of their cities burned, much of their countryside ravaged. But Glazebrook, who had helped bury the dead of both sides, believed in a better future. He saw the bitterness and hatred that followed the silencing of the guns and knew that a true peace would come not from force of law, but rather from with the hearts of men who were willing to work to rekindle a spirit of brotherly love.
Most people weren't ready for sermons on brotherly love. John Wise, a classmate of Glazebrook's at Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia, and a member of Beta Theta Pi, put it this way when he wrote of that time: "For four years we had been fighting. In that struggle, all we loved had been lost... in blood and flame and torture the temples of our lives were tumbling about our head... we were poor, starved, conquered, despairing; and to expect men to have no malice and no vindictiveness at such a time is to look for angels in human form."
Glazebrook, deeply religious at age 19, believed that younger men like himself might be more willing to accept, forgive, and reunite with the Northern counterparts if motivated by Christian, brotherly love. But he needed an organization, a means of gathering and organizing like-minded people. That was why a letter caught his attention. As cadet adjunct for the VMI Cadet Corps, Glazebrook routinely handled mail addressed to the Institute's Superintendent, General Francis H. Smith. One such letter came from an official of a leading northern fraternity who wanted help in reviving his southern chapters. (The South lost all 142 of its fraternity chapters during the war, and it was only with great effort that they were revived and expanded.) Fascinated, Glazebrook asked Gen. Smith about fraternities. As Gen. Smith explained what they were, Glazebrook knew he had found his organization.
In Richmond, Glazebrook consulted with University of Virginia alumni who furnished further information concerning fraternities. He discovered that they were not Greek in name only, but Greek throughout. Their mottoes, besides being written in Greek, reflected Greek ideals.
Greek philosophy, sometimes tinged with the medieval mysteries and Masonic lore, waste the cultural ideal of the fraternities. Glazebrook had been a proficient student of Greek at Randolph-Macon College before he entered the Institute. While admiring the language he recoiled from Greek Philosophy, ideology, mythologies, ethics and morals.
Reared in a devout Christian home, confirmed at historic St. Paul's in Richmond, he had served as a lay reader in St. Mark's. Essentially a religious man, typical of his time, he believed implicitly in more government of the universe, convinced that morals are of God, ordained by Him. He thought and taught, in its highest and noblest manifestations is the unique and supreme gift of Jesus Christ.
Glazebrook could contemplate fraternity only in terms of Christian love. Out of his prolonged meditation emerged the concept of a fraternity Greek in name only; the Greek name, the visible symbol of passionate conviction that peace and brotherhood could be achieved under the protection of Jesus Christ.
The name came spontaneously. As a boy and youth in St. Paul's and St. Mark's, Glazebrook had seen the ancient insignia of the Church, first discovered in the ancient catacombs, depicted upon their walls, ceilings, or other ecclesiastical objects, the Tau Cross subjoined by Alpha and Omega. "Alpha" and "Omega" signify to the Christian absolute plenitude or perfection. "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." Joined with the Cross the whole signifies that Christ is all in all, the beginning and end of salvation.
Having projected a Christian fraternity and appropriated a distinctively Christian symbol for its name, the Cross naturally was its logical emblem. For it, Glazebrook selected a form he though was the Maltese Cross, though actually it is the heraldic cross pattee. In the center he inscribed a crescent, three stars, the Tau Cross and clasped hands. Upon the upper and lower vertical arms he placed the Greek letters for Alpha and Omega and upon the horizontal arms, the Omega and Alpha letters respectively.
On September 11, 1865, Glazebrook invited two close friends to his home at 114 East Clay Street in Richmond, Virginia. There, in the rear parlor, he read them the Constitution he had written and invited them to sign. As they did, Alpha Tau Omega was born. It was the first fraternity founded after the Civil War, and the first sign of Greek life in the old Confederacy.
Glazebrook had chosen his co-founders well. Alfred Marshall, a friend of Glazebrook's from boyhood, was first captain of the VMI Cadet Corps and a popular individual. He was the spirited man of the trio, the man of action, the one most likely to attract new members. Erskine Mayo Ross, who ultimately became a federal judge, gave a sense of order to the meeting. He could curb the sometimes reckless energies of Marshall without dampening the charge of Glazebrook's ideas. The three formed a well-balanced group.
Otis Allan Glazebrook,Alfred Marshall,Erskine Mayo Ross
ATO was the first fraternity founded after the
Civil War in 1865, striving to heal the wounds created by the devastating war and help reunite the North and South.
ATO was the first fraternity founded as a national fraternity.
The first meeting of ATO was at 114 E. Clay St. in Richmond, Va., where Glazebrook read the Constitution of ATO to Marshall and Ross for the first time.
The first chapter north of the
Mason-Dixon line, was chartered at the
University of Pennsylvania 16 years after the founding of ATO, helping to bring a realization to the founders' dreams.
Thomas Arkle Clark in 1880, the ATO chapter at the
University of the South (Sewanee) became the first of any fraternity in the South to have a chapter house.
ATO's first fraternity west of the Rockies and first of any fraternity in the Northwest was at
Oregon State University in 1882.
Thomas Arkle Clark, the first initiate of the Gamma Zeta chapter at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was the nation's first collegiate dean of men.
The first
World War I Medal of Honor was given to Captain C. L. Irwin, Wyoming '13, as one of the first American heroes mentioned in dispatches to the U.S.
ATO was the first national fraternity to start a chapter free of alcohol and tobacco on fraternity property.
ATO was the first national fraternity to sponsor and conduct coeducational leadership conferences nationwide in 1992.
ATO was the first fraternity to implement a spiritual development program.
ATO was the first to develop and implement a member success initiative
Entertainment/MediaGreg Kinnear: "Talk Soup" Host, 1998
Academy Award Nominee
Garry Marshall: Film Director "
Pretty Woman" "
Overboard", Television Producer, "
Happy Days" and "
Laverne & Shirley" (incidentally, in the latter seasons of "
Happy Days" an ATO fraternity paddle can be seen hanging on the wall of "Arnold's")
Frank Marshall (movie producer): Film producer/director. Co-Founder of Amblin Entertainment
Tennessee Williams:
Pulitzer Prize winner "
A Streetcar Named Desire"
Forrest Sawyer:
ABC News,
NightlineGrant Show: Actor, "Melrose Place"
Rob Estes: Actor, "Melrose Place" "Silk Stalkings"
Rob Fitzgerald: Bud Light's "I love you man"
Jack Ingram: Country music performer
Cary Pierce,
Jack O'Neill: Members of the band "
Jackopierce"
Elmer Lower: Former President of ABC News
Art Linkletter:Television personality/Author, "Kids Say The Darndest Things"
Paul Gilmartin: Co-host of TBS Superstation's "Dinner & A Movie"
Dana Elcar: Film and TV actor best known for his supporting role on "MacGyver"
Brad Fiorenza: MTV's "
The Real World: San Diego" Castmate
PoliticsLawton Chiles: Governor of Florida 1991-1998
Stephen H. Grimes: Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court
Stephen C. O'Connell: Former Chief Justice, Florida Supreme Court
Jack Kemp: 1996 Candidate for Vice President, Former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban development
James Stockdale: 1992 Independent vice-presidential nominee
Alan K. Simpson: U.S. Senate
Willis B. Hunt Jr.: Chief Justice of the GA Supreme Court
Michael Mansfield: Senate Majority Leader 1961-1977
James Eastland: Senate Pro Tempore from 1972-1979
Lee Atwater: Chair of the Repulican National Committee
Frank Fahrenkopf: Chair of the Repulican National Committee
Richard H. Bryan: Senator (Nevada)
Harry A. Johnston: Congressman (Florida)
John E. Porter: Congressman (Illinois)
Lee H. Hamilton: Congressman (Indiana)
John Tanner: Congressman (Tennessee)
Sam Gibbons: Congressman
Edward J. Gurney: Senator (Florida)
SportsJoe Girardi: New York Yankees Catcher; Florida Marlins managaer
Len Dawson: NFL Hall of Famer, Super Bowl IV MVP, Sports Anchor
Chris Collinsworth: Former NFL Wide Receiver, Sports Anchor
Steve Spurrier: Head Coach of the National Champion Florida Gators, Heisman Trophy Winner 1966
Jim Tressel: Head Coach of the National Champion Ohio State Buckeyes (2002)
Lou Groza : NFL Hall of Famer
Jim Mora: Former Coach of New Orleans Saints
Ted Dibiase "The Million Dollar Man": Former WWF Wrestler
Terry Funk: Pro Wrestler
Dom Capers: Head Coach, Jacksonville Jaguars
Keith Jackson: Sports Commentator, ABC
Lee Corso: Sports Commentator, Football Coach
Curt Gowdy: Sports Broadcaster for 5 decades: 7 Superbowls and 14 World Series
Bud Collins: Tennis announcer, author
BusinessDaniel E. Gill: Chairman & President, Bausch & Lomb
J. Erik Jonsson: Founder, Texas Instruments
Earl T. Leonard Jr.: Senior Vice President for Coca-Cola
John Buchta: Brunswick Group, LLP
William Mitchell: Texas Instruments Vice Chairman (retired)
John A. Young: President & CEO, Hewlett-Packard
Matthew J. Hart: CFO & Executive Vice President for Hilton Hotels
James P. Hoffa: President of Teamsters Union (
Jimmy Hoffa's Son)
John Jennings: President of Associated Builders and Contractors
Edwin. M Crawford, Auburn '71, CEO of Caremark RX
Gerald J. Ford, Southern Methodist 66, CEO of Golden State Bancorp
Richard S. Fuld Jr., Colorado 69, CEO of Lehman Brothers Holdings
Richard C. Green, Southern Methodist 76, CEO of Aquila Corporation
C. Dowd Ritter, Birmingham Southern 69, CEO of AmSouth Bancorp
Francis M. Scicco, Worcester Poly 68, CEO of Arrow Electronics
Christopher A. Sinclair, University of Kansas '71, CEO of Pepsi (retired)
David M. Thomas, Florida 71, CEO of IMS Health
EducationStephen C. O'Connell: Former President of the University of Florida
Robert Mittelstaedt: Vice Dean of Wharton School
Dr. Michael Ferrari: President of Drake University
Frank Hereford: Former President of the University of Virginia
AstronautsDr. David Wolf: NASA
Charles Duke: NASA
Robert Overmyer: NASA
Manley Carter: NASA
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