The First Merger-Phi Beta Delta

February 1, 1941 witnessed the union with Phi Beta Delta Fraternity, which had been founded by eight men at Columbia University in 1912. The purpose of Phi Beta Delta was "to inculcate among themselves a spirit of loyalty toward their Alma Mater, promote a love for higher learning, and cultivate a spirit of unselfish fellowship." Phi Beta Delta brothers sought "higher idealism and tolerance of mind and spirit" throughout their lives.

The merger was successful because Phi Beta Delta was similar to Pi Lambda Phi in many areas. Both fraternities shared a belief in non-sectarianism and placed a heavy emphasis on scholastic achievement. The merger was particularly inviting to Pi Lambda Phi because of the potential to have a West Coast presence. In addition, there were only a few campuses where both Pi Lambda Phi and Phi Beta Delta were represented.

By the time of the merger, Phi Beta Delta had chapters throughout the United States including the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), University of Southern California, University of Wisconsin, University of Illinois, University of California at Berkeley, Temple University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Florida, University of Cincinnati and Washington University in St. Louis. It became evident that the chapters being located so far apart geographically presented a problem to the governing board of Phi Beta Delta.

Pi Lambda Phi was impressed with the quality of the individual chapters of Phi Beta Delta, even if the national organization was having problems. The UCLA chapter, Upsilon, built the first house on their campus and marked the beginning of a fraternity row. The Tau chapter at the University of California at Berkeley had been recognized as having the highest scholarship rating of any fraternity on campus. The Delta chapter at the University of Florida, under the guidance of Dean Joseph Weil, had maintained the highest fraternity scholarship average on campus for six consecutive years. The strength of the individual chapters of Phi Beta Delta and the organization of the international operations of Pi Lambda Phi made this merger a success for both fraternities.

At the time of the union, Pi Lambda Phi had 20 active chapters, while Phi Beta Delta had 16. Deducting duplicate chapters, the united fraternity at the time of the merger had a total of 33 active undergraduate chapters. Placing the prefix of the state before the Greek-letter designations of active chapters, adding the star from Phi Beta Delta's fraternity pin to Pi Lambda Phi's pin and changing the title of the fraternity magazine from The Frater to The Tripod are a few of the results of the merger.

For over half a century now, many of the chapters from Phi Beta Delta have remained strong chapters of our fraternity.