kappa sigma founders

[amanda6035]

I was going to put this in the Kappa Sig forum - but it looks kinda dead over there....

The Colony at SPSU is getting their charter this weekend, and we've (my AZD chapter) got a surprise in mind for them. I need a picture of their national founders and I'm not having much luck. I checked out google and the closest thing I could find was this: http://www.kappasigma.org/cgi-upload...e/Founders.jpg

Does anyone know if there is a group picture available? Also, if any of you Kappa Sigs would PM me, I'd like to share our idea and get some feedback. Thanks.

[KSigkid]

Your best bet may be to do a Google image search for the founders (their names are William Grigsby McCormick, George Miles Arnold, Frank Courtney Nicodemus, Edmund Law Rogers, and John Covert Boyd). Some of the local Kappa Sig sites may have pictures that are more up your alley.

Honestly, that's one of the better "group" shots I've seen of all of them, but good luck with your search. Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.

ETA: A few of us check the Kappa Sig forum, so if you ever want to post anything in there, go right ahead. I usually check it whenever I'm on GC.

[tallgreekalum]

Doesn't Kappa Sig claim to be founded in Bologna back in the 16th cen.?

[KappaSigSammyV]

I was actually planninng on going to SPSU later today to help the with their installation, but later had to change plans due to a doctors appointment.

[MysticCat]

Originally posted by tallgreekalum
Doesn't Kappa Sig claim to be founded in Bologna back in the 16th cen.?

Wikipedia describes it this way:

Kappa Sigma's traditional founding was in 1400 in the city of Bologna, Italy. Manuel Chrysoloras, a Greek emissary teaching at the University of Bologna, formed with some of his students a society to protect one another against the unscrupulous governor of the city, a former pirate named Baldassarre Cossa. Cossa was infamous for sending robbers to attack and steal from foreigners - in this case, non-city residents. These students bore weapons for protection and devised secret signs, words, and forms to protect their ranks from infiltration. Cossa, after leaving Bologna, later usurped the Papacy as an antipope under the name John XXIII.

Kappa Sigma was founded in America on December 10, 1869 by five students (George Miles Arnold, John Covert Boyd, William Grigsby McCormick, Frank Courtney Nicodemus, and Edmund Law Rogers Jr.) attending the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. The five founders, called "The Five Friends and Brothers," gathered in McCormick's room at 46 East Lawn and laid the foundations for the fraternity. From this first meeting, Kappa Sigma was given a Constitution and an Oath from which are taken the principles and ideals of all Kappa Sigmas. Kappa Sigma was the first "Southern" fraternity to establish a chapter in the North, at Lake Forest College, Illinois.

If my memory serves me correctly, some of the "American founders" spent some time in Europe, where they were said to have come in contact with the Society founded by Chrysoloras.

[wptw]

The irony of this fable being set in a place called Bologna is just perfect.

Baloney, indeed!

wptw

[MysticCat]

Originally posted by wptw
The irony of this fable being set in a place called Bologna is just perfect.

And where would we Greeks be without our myths?

[Tom Earp]

Originally posted by wptw
The irony of this fable being set in a place called Bologna is just perfect.

Baloney, indeed!

wptw

Ah wptw as was said in post of above, Myth is a huge part of Greek Social Lore!

Renee of Anjou was used as a beliver of what We in LX feel.

[James]

wptw, your response is petty and unworthy.

You have no certain knowledge that the story is false.

We weren't there.

We weren't there in 1400 nor were we there in 1869. So we can't know what experience one or more of the founders may have had while touring through Europe.

So why would you glibly mock something you can't know much about it, either through your physical presence in time or your experience as a member of the fraternity?

And assuming that the story was somehow untrue, why would you take pleasure in mocking hundreds of thousands of fraternity members that you would know to have been innocent receipients of a deception?

Originally posted by wptw
The irony of this fable being set in a place called Bologna is just perfect.

Baloney, indeed!

wptw

[wptw]

Hmm, where to start?

As for why I take pleasure in mocking, well, I guess I have to. After all, that’s what the word mocking means - criticizing for sport or entertainment. If it was all serious, it would just be plain old carping. And that's no fun at all.

If my mocking seems glib, it’s only because it comes so easily to me. Hey, if the glibness is what offends you, then perhaps some more sober and profound mocking would be more to your taste?


In general, I’d say very few of my responses are petty and unworthy (even the really petty ones are at least a a little bit worthy). There’s usually a point, and a good one at that if I do say so. So what could the point be?

Am I mocking the story itself? Gee, that would be somewhat out of character for someone who has spent so much time appreciating the myth aspect of initiation rituals. Perhaps instead I’m mocking the people who blindly believe the myth verbatim and tout it all over message boards like every other lame greek urban legend and insipid “fabulous first”. Talk about petty and unworthy!

You’re correct. I have no certain information the story is true or false – there’s no real proof of it, but no way to disprove it either. There’s a good deal of information that points to the European Vacation story being added only as an embellishment during the fleshing out of the ritual in the 1880s and then attached to the public history from there forward. If you’re interested in the actual research, I’m happy to discuss it privately.

But I’m not saying it’s a lie or a deception. Confucius say: If someone read obvious parable and believe it literally, is parable then deception, or is reader just gullible?

My point was that rational intelligent college educated critical thinkers ought to question the myths in their rituals and histories, and perhaps see them as parables and allegories the way they were intended (which then hopefully sparks some thought about the lesson being taught), rather than as factoids to be thrown around Greekchat and mimed endlessly.

Or the digest version: There's a reason Kappa Sigma itself uses the word "Allegory".

You're a smart guy James and I think you knew exactly what I meant. But if you want to create controversy where none exists, je suis à votre service.

Cheers,
wptw