Phi Kappa Psi: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Phi Kappa Psi
Motto: The great joy of serving others
Founded:	February 19, 1852 at Jefferson College (Canonsburg, Pennsylvania)
Founders:	William Henry Letterman and Charles Page Thomas Moore
Colors:	Cardinal red and hunter green
Yell:	"High! High! High! Phi Kappa Psi! Live ever! Die Never! Phi Kappa Psi!"
Flower:	Jaqueminot rose

ΦΚΨ (Phi Kappa Psi) is a U.S. national college fraternity.

History

Phi Kappa Psi was founded in 1852 in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, on the campus of Jefferson College by William Henry Letterman and Charles Page Thomas Moore. Through long nights of caring for a sick friend during an outbreak of disease, the founders grew to appreciate their service, and decided to form an organization that would ensconce these ideals, and on the dreary night of February 19, 1852, the brotherhood of Phi Kappa Psi was born.

The creed of Phi Kappa Psi was a result of efforts by John Henry Frizzell (Massachusetts Alpha, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 1898) and Kent Christopher Owen (Indiana Beta, University of Indiana, 1958). It was adopted by the Grand Arch Council in 1964. It reads as follows:

I believe that Phi Kappa Psi is a brotherhood of honorable men, courteous and cultured, who pledge throughout their lives to be generous, compassionate, and loyal comrades;

I believe that I am honor bound to strive manfully for intellectual, moral, and spiritual excellence; to help and forgive my Brothers; to discharge promptly all just debts; to give aid and sympathy to those who are less fortunate;

I believe that I am honor bound to strengthen my character and deepen my integrity; to counsel and guide my Brothers who stray from their obligations; to respect and emulate my Brothers who practice moderation in their manners and morals; to be ever mindful that loyalty to my Fraternity should not weaken loyalty to my college, but rather increase devotion to it, to my country and to my God;

I believe that to all I meet, wherever I go, I represent not only Phi Kappa Psi, but indeed the spirit of all fraternities; thus I must ever conduct myself so as to bring respect and honor not to myself alone, but also to my Fraternity;

To the fulfillment of these beliefs, of these ideals, in the noble perfection of Phi Kappa Psi, I pledge my life and my sacred honor.

The fraternity flag is in the propertions of eight and one-half feed wide by six feed high; the colors are the official fraternity colors; the design is three vertical stripes of equal width, a green in the middle, flanked on either side by a red stripe.

The official drink of Phi Kappa Psi is "Quimgambuli", this a distortion of the earlier title Quimbambuli, from the German drink Krambabuli. The "gam" in Quimgambuli is in honor of the Wisconsin Gamma chapter of Phi Kappa Psi, which prepared a description of the recipe and history of the drink and accompanying song.

Government

• U.S. President Woodrow Wilson (Virginia Alpha, University of Virginia, 1879)
• U.S. Senator Paul Coverdell (Missouri Alpha, University of Missouri, 1959)
• U.S. Senator Evan Bayh (Indiana Beta, University of Indiana, 1975)
• New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (Maryland Alpha, Johns Hopkins University, 1961)

Arts & entertainment

• Actor Peter Graves (Minnesota Beta, University of Minnesota, 1946)
• Actor Roy Scheider (Pennsylvania Eta, Franklin and Marshall College, 1954)
• Actor John Astin (Pennsylvania Alpha, Washington and Jefferson College, 1949)
• Author James Thurber (Ohio Delta, Ohio State University, 1918)
• Olympian Mark Spitz (Indiana Beta, University of Indiana, 1969)

Business

• Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang (California Beta, Stanford University, 1987)
• Excite co-founder Benjamin Lutch (California Beta, Stanford University, 1991)

Miscellaneous

• John F. Kennedy Jr. (Rhode Island Alpha, Brown University, 1979)
• Astronaut Owen Garriott