Quote:
Originally posted by Erik P Conard
I think you oughta check your sources...more than eight presidents were non-Greeks. . . . While we are proud of our fraternal affiliations, let us not overdo it.
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I agree, Erik. It does nothing to bolster the credibility of a defense if the facts are exaggerated. There were more than 8 non-Greek presidents after 1825 in the 19th Century alone -- none of the 13 presidents serving from 1825 to 1877 were Greek.
For the record, the following is from
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, 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
Even if Warren G. Harding and Jimmy Carter (for Phi Alpha Delta) and Bill Clinton (for Alpha Phi Omega) are added, that is only 20 out of 42 presidents -- not even half. (Yes, I know the current President is #43, but Grover Cleveland was both #22 and #24, so only 42 people have been president.) Even if Sinfonian Thomas Dewey had beaten Truman, the percentage wouldn't have gotten higher.
