Revitalization Period
In 1908, Max Frank, Moritz Jagtndorf and Joseph Hyman, students at Columbia, set out to establish a non-sectarian fraternity on their campus. They succeeded in interesting Brother Arthur Diamant and Brother Arthur Schwartz, and in obtaining from them permission to use the name of Pi Lambda Phi. The chapter at Columbia soon realized that it could not exist alone and that they would have to expand. In 1910, negotiations began with a local fraternity known as Sigma Iota at N.Y.U., and shortly thereafter, they became the Gamma Chapter at N.Y.U. Cornell was installed as Delta Chapter in 1911, and from there Zeta at Pennsylvania (1912), Epsilon at Michigan (1913), Gamma Sigma at Pittsburgh (1915), Lambda at Lehigh (1915) and Theta at Steven's Institute of Technology (1916) were chartered.
The original Fraternity magazine, The Frater, published its first issue in 1915. The Frater was published four times a year and included articles on every chapter of Pi Lambda Phi.
During the fall of 1916, a group of alumni organized a convention to discuss centralization of authority, administration, and general national policy. The result was a new national constitution, which provided for government of the Fraternity through a National Council, similar to the way we operate today.
December of 1917 marked the return to our founding site at Yale. Approximately twenty years after the expiration of our original chapter, the Iota chapter was established. Iota flourished for a short while by initiating respected area citizens as honorary members.
Pi Lambda Phi first expanded outside the Northeast United States in 1919 with the Omicron chapter at the University of Chicago. The following year Pi Lambda Phi became an international fraternity as the Eta chapter was established at McGill University in Montreal.
By the 1920s, Pi Lambda Phi had established an annual Summer Conference and an annual Convention in December to address the business of the Fraternity. Many of these gatherings were highlighted by famous keynote speakers and elaborate social gatherings.
The founding of the Endowment Fund marked a fraternity milestone. In 1924, the "Knights of the Cavern" donated $1,640, proceeds from a theater benefit. The purpose of the Endowment Fund was to assist chapters with financial issues, create scholarships and establish foundations for the benefit of the fraternity and to lend financial assistance to fraters.
In 1928 we see that Pi Lambda Phi was living up to the expectations of our Founding Fathers. After receiving an invitation to our 1928 Founders' Day celebration, Henry Fisher responded:
"...As I look back over thirty years I recall the humble beginnings of our fraternity. I realize that we, who founded Pi Lambda Phi, built better than we knew. The fraternity has grown beyond our fondest dreams. That this has come to pass is due, of course, entirely to those who came after the founders and who have labored so zealously. Need I tell you how deeply I appreciate the spirit that actuated Founders' Day and may I venture to hope that from each year there may come increased devotion to the aims of our fraternity."
