PHI BETA KAPPA ALUMNI IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AT NINETY:
1918 TO 2008
Prepared by Jean Paule
Arriving at the age of ninety seems a good time to reflect on a life well lived, as in the case of the life of an organization, Phi Beta Kappa Alumni in Southern California, in continuous existence since its founding. Especially is reflection significant when note is taken of the goals achieved.
Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest, most respected honorary society in America, dates back to December 5, 1776. A century later the founding structure of college and university chapters was expanded to include Associations to provide a means for members who had been elected to the Society to continue their interests in scholarship and an intellectual life.
On May 11, 1918, at a luncheon meeting in Claremont, following two years’ preliminary work by a small group of Phi Beta Kappa members in Southern California, the alumni association was officially launched. The mission then, as in words of today, was to support liberal education and lifelong learning by providing high quality programs and interaction opportunities for members and scholarships for students. As will be seen, Alpha Association as chartered by the Society, has been successful in all aspects of the original mission.
The structure of a strong leadership governing body of officers and councilors has led to a growing membership, in the area of 2000 men and women, the largest of the nearly sixty Associations within the Society. By sponsoring three or four outstanding intellectual and cultural events a year, the Association has provided fellowship, intellectual stimulation, and support for the liberal arts in higher education. The list of speakers, variety of events, and special programs at various venues within Southern California is impressive.
While Southern California Phi Beta Kappa members have found over the years keen satisfaction from these opportunities for friendship, intellectual stimulation, and support for the liberal arts education that came to each as students, possibly the greatest reward has come from their funding of scholarship programs.
In the founding years of the Association when numbers and financial support were small, the primary outreach to college and university students was through an annual essay contest that provided financial grants to winners who wrote on recommended subject fields, primarily related to the liberal arts. This widely accepted program existed until the years of World War II.
It was at the end of the war years that a major shift in the Associations’ outreach program to student in local colleges and universities occurred. The year 1948 was the beginning of the now sixty-year-old International Scholarship Fund, to be followed in time by the Graduate Study Awards and the High School Awards, with an outstanding total estimate of close to $1,400,000 in student awards.
The background for Alpha Association’s International Scholarship Program dates back to 1945, at the end of World War II, when key Association members were inspired to act to prevent another such catastrophe. They termed their program an “Investment in World Unity” and set out to raise funds to assist international students studying in local higher education institutions, particularly those pursuing graduate degrees who would find it difficult because of the lack of United States citizenship to obtain funds. There was an outpouring of support for the movement, and dollars began to arrive during the initial campaign 1948 year. By 1958 an estimated $45,000 had been raised and allocated to student residents of a number of countries, who upon completing their degrees returned to their homelands. The program grew through the years, and although some records were incomplete, the number of students assisted was in the hundreds. Likewise, although incomplete treasury reports do not provide a totally accurate number of dollars raised and spent, a fair estimate is $905,064 over the sixty years.
To honor domestic students, the Association in 1980 established Graduate Study Awards, a program, which as it operates today, provides a monetary award to one graduating Phi Beta Kappa senior from each of the ten colleges and universities in Southern California with chapters. To date $417,800 has been awarded to 247 students.
In 1995, a modest award program was inaugurated to recognize up to four academically qualified seniors each year from four Los Angeles high schools, the grants intended to be used primary ly toward college admission costs. To date $66,250 has been awarded to 163 students.
Thus the estimated awards to students over sixty years is $1,389,114, in round figures nearly $1,400,000.
January, 2008