History of Triangle – Triangle CPP

Founders

Edwin B. Adams
Wilbur G. Burroughs
Stanley G. Cutler
Ruby O. Harder
Theron R. Howser
Robert Emmett Keough
Thomas E. Lowry
Milton H. McCoy
Meryl S. Morgan
Ernest B. Nettleton
Raymond C. Pierce
Franklin N. Ropp
Arthur Schwerin
Charles M. Slaymaker
Charles E. Waterhouse
Emil A. Weber

Standing left to right: Slaymaker, Morgan, Pierce, Harder, Howser, Keough, Schwerin, and Nettleton, Seated: Ropp. Lowry, McCoy, Weber, Adams, and Cutler. Not pictured: Burroughs and Waterhouse.

National Organization

April 15 is historic in the annals of Triangle Fraternity, the annual Founders Day. On that date in 1907, the band of 16 students constituting the Founders obtained incorporation papers from the State of Illinois. Before the incorporation papers could be applied for, however, there had to be some kind of organization. The Founders, all junior civil engineering students at the University of Illinois, for the most part had known each other since they were freshmen. In the fall of 1906, four students—Stan Cutler, Milton McCoy and Meryl Morgan, and Emil Weber—started discussions about establishing a Civil Engineering club. As the group developed and added members over the next few months, they decided to become a fraternity with plans to rent a house and live together during their senior year, 1907-1908. Just ten years after Triangle’s formation, Founder Arthur Schwerin was looking through his college mementos and found a picture that brought the beginnings of Triangle vividly to his memory:

“This is a flashlight that was taken March 8, 1907, and is, as far as I know, the only picture that was ever taken of the original charter members of TRIANGLE…Our constitution was adopted the latter part of February, 1907, and the meeting at which this picture was taken was held in McCoy’s room for the purpose of selecting a name and also for the election of officers.

A large number of names had been suggested, but Transiters, Eads, Transit and Level, and Triangle seemed to meet with the most favor. Finally it narrowed down to a choice between Eads and Triangle, and the latter won out. It was decided to call the Illinois Chapter “Eads”, because even at that time, we had visions of a fraternity which was to extend beyond the horizon of our own school, and take in all of the large engineering schools of the country.

Shortly after this meeting three additional men were taken in as charter members. Borden left soon after this picture was taken, and never signed the constitution, thus leaving sixteen men, as stated in our history, as the charter members.”

Triangle’s beginnings came from the desire of some congenial college friends to extend their friendship, not only through college, but also for life. It was in the fall of 1906 that sixteen civil engineering juniors at the University of Illinois began the association that became Triangle Fraternity. These Founders based their organization on the principles of honor, friendship, character, brotherhood, courage, and ideals. They developed their plans quickly, and on April 15, 1907, incorporated Triangle in the State of Illinois. The date of incorporation has been designated as Founders’ Day, and Triangle appropriately celebrates it every year at each chapter.

National Chapters

	School	Chapter	Date Installed	Years Active	Notes
1	University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign	ill	April 15, 1907	1907–present	founding chapter
2	Purdue University	pur	April 8, 1909	1909–present
3	Ohio State University	os	February 2, 1911	1911–present
4	University of Wisconsin–Madison	wis	February 7, 1913	1913–present
5	University of Kentucky	ky	October 31, 1920	1920–1983, 2005–present
6	University of Cincinnati	cin	August 6, 1921	1921–2005, 2014–present
7	University of Iowa	ia	May 7, 1922	1922–1948
8	University of Minnesota	minn	October 29, 1922	1922–present
9	Illinois Institute of Technology	ar	May 26, 1923	1923–present	originally installed as Armour Institute of Technology
10	University of Missouri	mo	October 25, 1924	1924–1933
11	University of Michigan	mich	February 21, 1925	1925–1971, 1975–1995, 2007–present
12	University of Kansas	kan	January 8, 1927	1927–present
13	Missouri University of Science and Technology	mom	December 10, 1927	1927–present	originally installed as Missouri School of Mines
14	Pennsylvania State University	ps	March 3, 1928	1928–present
15	South Dakota School of Mines and Technology	sdm	September 27, 1930	1930–present
16	Northwestern University	nu	May 25, 1935	1935–1987
17	Marquette University	marq	April 24, 1937	1937–present
18	University of Louisville	lou	March 22, 1941	1941–present
19	Cornell University	cor	April 18, 1942	1942–1985
20	Michigan State University	msu	January 8, 1955	1955–present
21	Clarkson College	cl	November 16, 1957	1957–1970
22	University of California, Los Angeles	ucla	December 7, 1957	1957–present
23	University of Nebraska–Lincoln	neb	March 16, 1963	1963–2011
24	Iowa State University	is	April 25, 1964	1964–2011	recolonizing since 2013
25	Kansas State University	ks	September 7, 1964	1964–present
26	Oklahoma State University	oks	November 21, 1964	1964–1995
27	Milwaukee School of Engineering	msoe	January 23, 1965	1965–present
28	Rochester Institute of Technology	rit	February 4, 1967	1967–2010
29	Colorado State University	csu	May 27, 1967	1967–2006, 2012–present
30	Rose–Hulman Institute of Technology	rose	May 4, 1968	1968–present	largest active chapter
31	University of Colorado	colo	April 26, 1969	1969–1972
32	University of Pittsburgh	pitt	April 4, 1970	1970–2001, 2007–present
33	University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee	uwm	April 11, 1970	1970–present
34	University of Toledo	tol	May 22, 1971	1971–present
35	Mississippi State University	miss	November 11, 1972	1972–1987
36	University of Oklahoma	ok	November 18, 1979	1979–present
37	Virginia Polytechnic Institute	vpi	April 19, 1980	1980–1996
38	University of Connecticut	conn	March 27, 1982	1982–1998
39	University of Texas at Arlington	uta	September 27, 1986	1986–2000
40	Texas A&M University	tamu	April 9, 1988	1988–1999, 2007–2009
41	Michigan Technological University	mtu	April 16, 1988	1988–2006, 2012–present
42	Trine University	tsu	April 15, 1989	1989–2008	originally installed as Tri-State University
43	University of Akron	akr	November 2, 1991	1991–1997
44	Northern Illinois University	niu	October 9, 1993	1993–2006
45	University of Maryland, Baltimore County	umbc	June 4, 2005	2005–present
46	University of Houston	hou	April 19, 2008	2008–present
47	University of California, Berkeley	cal	April 24, 2010	2010–present
48	University of California, San Diego	ucsd	February 11, 2011	2011–present
49	University of North Carolina at Charlotte	char	April 30, 2011	2011–present
50	California State Polytechnic University, Pomona	cpp	May 7, 2011	2011–present
51	University of California, Irvine	uci	September 29, 2012	2012–present
52	Florida Atlantic University	fau	September 7, 2013	2013–present
53	Penn State Erie, The Behrend College	psb	February 28, 2015	2015–present
54	Virginia Commonwealth University	vcu	April 11, 2015	2015–present
55	University of Utah	utah	April 25, 2015	2015–present	possessors of Rattle III

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