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On the cold night of January 10, 1899, students of Illinois Wesleyan University, in the small Midwestern town of Bloomington, had just returned from the Christmas holidays when Joseph L. Settles went to the room occupied by James C. McNutt and Clarence A. Mayer at 504 East Locust Street to discuss the organization of a new society on campus. Joined immediately by Owen I. Truitt and C. Roy Atkinson, these five students created the first set of regulations for the Knights of Classic Lore, a society whose avowed purpose was "to aid college men in mental, moral, and social development."
Because of his late arrival for this meeting, James J. Love was made the first new member. Love, along with Edwin A. Palmer and George H. Thorpe became the first initiates of this new organization. Although Settles was the leader in organizing the society, Atkinson was elected President and McNutt was chosen as Secretary.
There were two fraternities already in existence at Illinois Wesleyan in 1899, both with more than 50 chapters nationally. Phi Gamma Delta had been established in 1866, while Sigma Chi had begun there in 1883. In addition, two other national fraternities, Phi Delta Theta and Delta Tau Delta, had inactive chapters at Illinois Wesleyan. The Phi Delts existed from 1878-1897 and the Delts from 1877-1880. For a more detailed look at the history of Tau Kappa Epsilon International please click here.
At the University of Ottawa during the winter semester, André Small was approached by a local Fraternity to join the group. André however, had already decided to change programs and attend UOIT the following year. October 2003 rolled around and André approached his residence room mate Ron Jelenski while they were at the gym and proposed the idea of starting up a Fraternity. Several groups were contacted via email, including Phi Kappa Pi (a Canadian National Fraternity) and Sigma Chi. Out of all the fraternal organizations to return their emails Tau Kappa Epsilon was the only one to send a Chapter representative to answer any questions.
Chris Sullivan from the Tau Omega Chapter (Ottawa) quickly showed André and Ron the many benifits to affiliating with one of the worlds largest social Fraternities and it was decided that an interest group of Tau Kappa Epsilon would be started at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. Over the next several months men were gathered to help make the dream of creating a TKE colony a reality.
The 3rd man approached to join the interest group was Kirk Megna, President of Student Population United (a local university social group). Kirk was approached due to the large number of student contacts and experience running a student organization. As André and Ron branched out to recruit more men, they next approached their neighbours Adam Lipchitz and James Hammond. Eventually the 20 man requirement had been met and TKE Head Quarters was contacted to begin the next step.
Finally after 6 months of hard work and dedication the TKE interest group attained Colony status on April 17th, 2004. Consisting of only 20 men, TKE Colony #789 began to embark on the journey of a life time... becoming an official Chapter and receiving their Charter. Officer positions were assigned in order to give structure to the Colony and give a foundation upon which to grow. Since André and Ron had been involved since the start, they decided to flip a coin to determine who would be the founding Prytanis (President) and who would take Epi-Praytanis (Vice-President). Ron Jelenksi won the toss and André Small was declared Epi-Prytanis, Kyle Tettman was appointed as Grammateus (Secretary), Kirk Megna as Crysophylos (Treasurer), Ross Obuchi as Histor (Historian), James Hammond as Hypophetes (Chaplain), Bilal Rabah as Pylortes (Sargent at Arms), and James Linton as Hegemon (Educator).
Over the next year, recruitment efforts were made in order to meet the 35 man Chartering requirement and raise funds to cover all Chartering expenses. Through Nick Forrest(Alpha Class), the Colony was introduced to Michael Clarke, husband of Oshawa City Councillor Cathy Clarke, and it was decided that the Colony would help the Clarkes to lower their basement as a way to raise the required funds to Charter. After 4 months, hundreds of man hours and thousands of lbs of dirt and cement, the basement was finally complete.
In a little more then a year, Tau Kappa Epsilon's Colony #789 became a Chapter and received their Charter at their first annual Red Carnation Ball (RCB) on the 30th of April, 2005. The chartering document was presented by Grand Hypophetes Brian Barrett and there were a number of other distinguished guests at the ball including city Councillor Cathy Clarke, Harbour Commissioner Michael Clarke, and Local MP Colin Carrie. The RCB was held at Trillium Trails in Oshawa with roughly 60 people in attendance.
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