LOL at the ad on this thread - Dating for Seniors!

For the US presidents, it *really* depends on how you count. Do you count Masons? Do you count receiving Honorary membership well after college (including as President) like Obama? Do you count Service Greeks like Clinton?


Randy

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3568/...705ab566_m.jpg

:D

Wait Obama is Greek? Since when? Also i don't see how it is possible for all but 4 presidents to have been Greek since 1825 since that is when the first fraternity was founded. ((Not counting Phi Beta Kappa)).

Oh, don't encourage anyone. :p

The claim is just plain wrong. (And I'm pretty sure that no one making the claim was thinking about Freemasonry; they're thinking about college fraternities.)

That's because it's not possible -- hence my using it as an example of inaccurate information one can read on GC (or sadly on chapter websites and in chapter recruitment info).

ActuallyI googled it and I found a clarification that makes more sense. it says all but 4 presidents born since 1825 were Greek.

That could be accurate, depending on whether non-social/general fraternities are included (and depending on whether Obama has been initiated by a fraternity).

Per The Center for the Study of the College Fraternity in Bloomington, Indiana:

The North-American Interfraternity Conference has also compiled a list of U.S. Presidents who were/are fraternity members. Contrary to the statistic quoted above ["All but two U.S. Presidents since 1825 have been fraternity men"], no president prior to 1877 was a fraternity member and seven presidents since then have not been fraternity men. Presidents who were fraternity members are:

President/Years in Office/Fraternity
Rutherford B. Hayes 1877-1881 Delta Kappa Epsilon
James Garfield 1881 Delta Upsilon
Chester Arthur 1881-1885 Psi Upsilon
Benjamin Harrison 1989-1893 Phi Delta Theta
William McKinley 1897-1901 Sigma Alpha Epsilon
Theodore Roosevelt 1901-1909 Delta Kappa Epsilon/Alpha Delta Phi
William Howard Taft 1909-1913 Psi Upsilon
Woodrow Wilson 1913-1921 Phi Kappa Psi
Calvin Coolidge 1923-1929 Phi Gamma Delta
Franklin D. Roosevelt 1933-1945 Alpha Delta Phi
Harry S. Truman 1945-1953 Lambda Chi Alpha
Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953-1961 Tau Epsilon Phi
John F. Kennedy 1961-1963 Phi Kappa Theta
Gerald R. Ford 1974-1977 Delta Kappa Epsilon
Ronald Reagan 1981-1989 Tau Kappa Epsilon
George H. W. Bush 1989-1993 Delta Kappa Epsilon
George W. Bush 2001- Delta Kappa Epsilon

That means that 7 presidents (not counting Obama) since 1877 were not social/general fraternity members, and all presidents since 1877, except for Rutherford B. Hayes, were born after 1825. If Warren G. Harding and Jimmy Carter (for Phi Alpha Delta) and Bill Clinton (for Alpha Phi Omega) are added, that does leave four (again, not counting Obama) who were not fraternity members.

It should also be noted that at least one president (Harry Truman) was an honorary initiate, not a collegiate. I leave to others how that should be counted.

Eisenhower also honorary.
 

Eisenhower was also an honorary brother (http://www.tau-epsilon-phi.com/EpsilonEta) and initiated in 1967

Truman was Honorary and initiated in 1945. (http://www.crossandcrescent.com/2006...-a-lambda-chi/)

Wonder how many others in the list were honorary.

Well I know Arthur and Taft were both actual brothers. Though IIRc one of them was also an acacia brother. I forget which. and the Acacia membership was honorary.

I should have remembered that. He went to West Point.

Clinton is also a member of Kappa Kappa Psi (so is Chuck Norris, LULZ!) and didn't Phi Beta Sigma vote to induct him last summer?

Clinton is also in Phi Alpha Delta

I knew that at one point. Thanks for the reminder.

Now that I did not know. :D

These I don't know about. Thanks.

So apparently Clinton is very Greek. That is what, four different orgs?