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→The Early Years (Excerpted from The History of Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity: 1870-1976)
==The Early Years (Excerpted from The History of Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity: 1870-1976)==
In 1913, the year of Beta Omega's installation, the University of Oregon was 41 years old, it had a student body of 691, and a faculty of 65.
The five girls who had taken the name of Gamma Delta Gamma applied informally for a Kappa charter in 1909. They had been inspired by their house mother, Agnes Leach Dunstan, Omega - Simpson, mother of one of the five, to make Kappa their goal.
For four years the group maintained strength on the campus, and a second house mother, Maude Stinson, Beta Eta-Stanford, helped to keep the thought of a Kappa charter before them. In the spring of 1912 a formal petition was approved by Fraternity officials and sent on for chapter vote. On January 11, 1913, Beta Omega was installed by the grand president, Eva Powell, Pi Deuteron-California, assisted by Beta Pi Chapter. By that time four national women's fraternities had been established at Oregon but only one, Gamma Phi Beta, had been installed earlier than the local, Gamma Delta Gamma.
Although the group had had the security of a rented house near the campus from 1910 to 1925, the years before and after installation were difficult. Early members of Beta Omega have been described as "vigorous-minded individual girls of active and varied interests," distinguished by "strength and self-reliance."
Although the Kappa Alumnae Association in Eugene was small, these 20 members were of great service to the young chapter. There was help with house rent and expenses, assistance to the chapter adviser, and January 11 birthday parties for the group. Portland mothers also stepped in, presenting furniture and rugs.
Beta Omega developed in a stimulating atmosphere, inspired by the university president, Prince L. Campbell, a man of many virtues, including a respect for scholarship, and a feeling for beauty. Most of the girls in the early chapter came from Portland and Eugene. They majored in education, journalism, art, or music. Their scholarship, to quote Sally Elliott Allen, Eta-Wisconsin, the 1930 history chronicler for Beta Omega, "has been creditable and often superior, and they have always stood for a sincere and unaffected womanliness."
A member of Pi Deuteron Chapter, Irene Hazard Gerlinger, was a regent of the University of Oregon between 1914-1929. She was in charge of the campaign for the women's building which was dedicated in 1920 and name in her honor. She was the only woman on the Board of Regents.
The independent spirit of the house was seen in a number of interesting ways. There was no brass nameplate on the door; the telephone was answered by a repetition of the number "204", not "Kappa Kappa Gamma"; every Tuesday "outside girls" were invited for dinner; and many girls who were campus leaders did not wear their keys.
==Highlights of 2011==