The Theta Zeta Story

Setting The Foundation

Located in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, Dartmouth College provides a unique setting for a chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. However, during the spring of 1971 an Alpha Brother who was a student at Boston University Medical School and his natural brother Anderson Jerome Lonian (a freshman at Dartmouth) discussed the possibility of starting an undergraduate Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha at Dartmouth.

Ensuingly conversations were initiated between Brother Lonian and prospective pledges at Dartmouth. The regional and national offices granted permission and a pledge program was implimented in the spring of 1971. During this pledge period which has no resemblance to the customary imbibing and pledge raids of some of the other fraternities in Hanover, seven young men travelled to Boston nearly every weekend during that spring to be pledged by Brothers there. Interrupted by summer vacation, the pledge period resumed in the fall. Finally, in the winter of 1972, seven Dartmouth students were initiated into Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., and Theta Zeta was chartered as the 381st undergraduate Chapter of the Fraternity. Ironically, like the origins of Alpha Chapter, the origins of Theta Zeta lay in the perseverance and dedication of seven young men, the Jewels of the Chapter.