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Alpha Tau Omega
ΑΤΩ
File:ATO Crest 2.JPG
ATΩ Crest
FoundedError: Invalid birth date for calculating age
Virginia Military Institute
TypeLeadership, Social
ScopeNational
Mottoπι εψιλον πι
ColorsAzure and Old Gold
SymbolHeraldic Cross Pattee
FlowerWhite Tea Rose
Chapters245 chartered
132 active
NicknameTaus, Alpha Taus, ATOs
HeadquartersOne North Pennsylvania Street, 12th Floor
Indianapolis, Indiana
USA
Websitehttp://www.ato.org

ATΩ (Alpha Tau Omega) (commonly known as ATO, Taus, Alpha Taus) is an American social fraternity that annually ranks among the top ten national fraternities for numbers of chapters and total number of members. ATO has more than 250 active and inactive chapters with more than 196,000 members and more than 6,500 undergraduate members. ATO is also one-third of the Lexington Triad, along with Kappa Alpha Order and Sigma Nu. The oldest active chapter is the Delta Chapter located at the University of Virginia.

History

During and after the Civil War, families were torn apart, due to brothers fighting on opposite sides. A Virginia Military Institute student, Otis Allan Glazebrook, had a vision to reunite the North and the South in brotherhood. His ideals started Alpha Tau Omega as the first fraternity that would be considered a national fraternity, and it was with Erskine Mayo Ross, and Alfred T Marshall that they sought to bring together the two factions that had been torn apart.

Creed

The Creed of Alpha Tau Omega

To bind men together in a brotherhood based upon eternal and immutable principles, with a bond as strong as right itself and as lasting as humanity; to know no North, no South, no East, no West, but to know man as man, to teach that true men the world over should stand together and contend for supremacy of good over evil; to teach, not politics, but morals; to foster, not partisanship, but the recognition of true merit wherever found; to have no narrower limits within which to work together for the elevation of man than the outlines of the world: these were the thoughts and hopes uppermost in the minds of the founders of the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity.


-Otis Allan Glazebrook 1880

Founders

Otis Allan Glazebrook, Alfred E. Marshall, and Erskine Mayo Ross are recognized as the three founders of ATO. Following these, the next leader of ATO was Thomas Arkle Clark; Clark was the first Dean of Men at the University of Illinois and the President of the Gamma Zeta chapter at the University. Thomas A. Clark served the national fraternity as "Worthy Grand Chief" for several terms. To this day, the highest honor a graduating senior can achieve is the Thomas Arkle Clark Award.

Another man, Joseph Anderson, is known as the second founder of ATO. Because of a lack of organization and many chapters ignoring their responsibilities to the national fraternity -- including financial ones, ATO was on a devastating decline. In 1876, of the 22 chapters in existence at the time, only 2 attended the annual Congress. Joseph R. Anderson was appointed and accepted the position of Senior Grand Chief, or the National President, in 1870. Under Anderson, ATO was able to get back on track and become the well established fraternity it is today.

Famous ATO members

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References

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