A Brief History of Sigma Nu at Gettysburg College

The Star Club

Sigma Nu’s roots at Gettysburg College reach back to January 1891, when Dr. Harvey McKnight, president of the college, encouraged a seminary student named Samuel James McDowell to organize a club to assist a local clergyman, the Reverend William G. Gettle. The result was the Star Club, which took its name from an earlier organization founded in 1876. Though Gettle soon left Gettysburg, the club endured — developing its own symbols, rituals, and identity around the pursuit of truth, beauty, physical development, and spiritual growth. By 1926 the Star Club had leased a house on North Washington Street, evolving from a boarding club into something resembling a local fraternity.

The Criterion Club

On October 9, 1923, a small group of students met in Room 417 of the Old Dorm with the aim of transforming an eating club into a genuine fraternal organization. Led by Frederick Weidner, they adopted a constitution, chose the name “Criterion Club” — signifying a standard of brotherhood — and established crimson and royal blue as their colors. Over the next several years the club formalized its symbols, held its first Alumni Banquet, and began considering the leap to full fraternity status.

Phi Kappa Rho

In May 1928 the Criterion Club voted to become a Greek-letter fraternity, choosing the name Phi Kappa Rho. Formally recognized on November 9, 1929, the fraternity moved into a house at 309 North Stratton Street where brothers lived together for the first time. They maintained the highest scholastic average among fraternities for 1929–1930 and became active across campus life.

On December 1, 1932, Phi Kappa Rho and the Star Club merged under the Phi Kappa Rho name — uniting two traditions that traced back to the nineteenth century. Declining membership during the Depression years likely motivated the consolidation. The combined brotherhood adopted new rituals and a new constitution, carrying forward through the difficult 1930s, World War II, and into the postwar era.

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Zeta Sigma Is Born

By the early 1950s, Phi Kappa Rho was the last remaining local fraternity at Gettysburg. On February 15, 1954, the brotherhood voted 24–1 to go national and 25–0 to petition Sigma Nu. On May 15, 1954, Phi Kappa Rho became the Zeta Sigma Chapter of Sigma Nu Fraternity in installation ceremonies at Weidensall Hall, with a ritual team from Carnegie Tech’s Delta Sigma Chapter presiding. Twenty-one members and alumni were invested with the white star.

The toastmaster for the installation banquet was the Rev. Harvey Daniel Hoover, a member of the original Star Club and of Phi Kappa Rho — a living link across sixty-three years of fraternal history. Hoover would later be elected Grand Chaplain of Sigma Nu, the only Zeta Sigma ever to hold a High Council position.

The Early Years

As the twelfth nationally sponsored fraternity on a heavily Greek campus, Zeta Sigma quickly distinguished itself. By 1956 the chapter held the highest GPA among all fraternities. That same year brothers undertook their first community service project — painting mailboxes around Gettysburg — launching a philanthropic tradition that continues to this day. Social life flourished with the White Rose Formal, Christmas house parties, a clambake at Caledonia State Park, and the Whitefoot-Blackfoot Dance with Alpha Tau Omega.

In the 1960s the chapter began its pilgrimages to Sigma Nu’s national headquarters at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia — an annual tradition that became a highlight for brothers and pledges alike. The alumni chapter was chartered in 1960, and in 1964 two figures arrived who would shape the chapter for decades: Allen “Mom” Dubbs as cook and culinary engineer, and Dr. William F. Railing as faculty adviser.

A New Home

In February 1970, the Zeta Sigma Property Association purchased the stately residence at 55 West Broadway for $80,000 from Marion Dickson. The house had been built in 1929–1930 for Dr. John McCrea Dickson, a Gettysburg College alumnus, trustee, and chief surgeon at Annie M. Warner Hospital. Brothers quickly dubbed the imposing stone house “The Castle,” and it has served as the chapter’s home ever since — a point of deep pride maintained through decades of improvements by actives and alumni alike.

Growth and Tradition

The next two decades saw the chapter thrive. The 1977 dance marathon raised over $700 for Easter Seals, and in 1983 the brothers transformed the entire house into a haunted house that drew over 2,000 visitors in two nights — a beloved fundraiser repeated in 1984 and 1986 that raised thousands for the community. The first Roaring Twenties Party in 1975 became an annual campus institution.

In 1981 Allen Dubbs — after what the brothers called “the longest pledge period” of 17 years — was formally initiated as Zeta Sigma #427 with unanimous approval from Sigma Nu’s High Council. Both mortgages on the house were paid off and ceremonially burned in 1985 and 1987, the latter occasion marked by the Mayor of Gettysburg declaring April 25, 1987, “Sigma Nu Day.” The following spring the chapter initiated its 500th member.

When the Gettysburg faculty voted in March 1988 to abolish the Greek system, Zeta Sigma rallied — actives, alumni, and the national fraternity working together to demonstrate the value of Greek life. The trustees voted to retain the system on May 19, 1989.