The History of Gamma Psi
The creation of a college level of Gamma Delta Psi actually began as early as 1896 at Cornell University when alumni graduated from high school “active” chapters and moved onto post- secondary institutions. These were known as “alumni” chapters made up of brothers who wanted to further their close ties and friendships with like-minded members of their organization while in college. Other Alumni University Chapters included: Harvard University, Williams College, Amherst College, Yale University, and the University of Pennsylvania.
The first truly “active” college level chapter of Gamma Delta Psi, given the Greek Letters of “Alpha Tau”, was founded at the University of Detroit in 1950 by Brother William Fermoile. It was followed by the formation of a second chapter, “Alpha Upsilon” at the University of Buffalo in 1952 by Brother James Fermoile.
The idea of a college level chapter of Gamma Delta Psi resurfaced in 1967 when Brother Ron Adams graduated from his beloved “Beta Alpha” Chapter at Hopewell High School in Virginia and attended John Tyler Community College in Chester, Virginia. Ron Adams would go on to create the first chapter of Gamma Psi in 1969 at John Tyler.
This first chapter of Gamma Psi Fraternity at John Tyler Community College, became known as Alpha Chapter when they inducted our next chapter, Beta, at Richard Bland College of the College of William and Mary in Petersburg, Virginia. Beta Chapter founding brothers in 1971 were Jimmy Cummins and Danny Wyatt; there were a total of 13 charter members, 9 of whom were Gamma Delta Psi Alumni from 6 various active high school chapters in the Tri-cities area. Being at a two-year junior college was always a challenging aspect for those chapter brothers due to the continual loss of up to half of its membership at the end of each school year.
The benefit for the rest of the fraternity was that many of these older active brothers who transferred to universities helped to expand and build our brotherhood into other colleges. The founders of chapters at Virginia Commonwealth University, Longwood University, and Radford University were all first Beta Chapter Brothers.
Gamma chapter was charted at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia in 1985. In the late 1980’s, Gamma Psi went international, with Delta and Epsilon chapters being founded in Canada. Expansion continued with the founding of Eta chapter at Longwood College (now University) and Theta at Radford University in the early 1990’s.
2010 marked the founding of Iota Chapter in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Several years later Gamma Psi formally reactivated it’s governing body, the International Board of Directors, after relying on an interim governing body of alumni volunteers.