Our Chapter History cont' and National Fraternity
The National Fraternity
Alpha Kappa Lambda was founded on April 22, 1914 by a group of young men attending the University of California, Berkeley. Its birth, however, dates back to 1906 when a group of friends discussed the "need of Christian men for a place to live and study that was within their (financial) means."
After assisting in the cleanup of the Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, four students re-addressed their desire to organize a house club during a YMCA conference in Pacific Grove, California. It was decided to form "Los Amigos" in 1907, a house club named from the Spanish translation of "The Friends." Shortly after, seven more men joined Los Amigos.
Reverend Gail Cleland, one of the original eleven members, recalled, "When we organized Los Amigos as a house club...house clubs and fraternities were dime a dozen. They came, they lived for a few months or a few years, then they went out of existence again. But Los Amigos did not go out of existence."
He continues, "And seven years later...in response to the suggestion of Benjamin Ide Wheeler, president of the University of California, we organized our house club as a national fraternity of one chapter."
The founders of Los Amigos were a diverse group, but they shared a common desire for studious living in a college environment and continued integrity after their formal education concluded.
The original founding fathers of the Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity were William Floyd Barnum, Herman "Richie" "Dickie" Bergh, Charles Junius "Charlie" Booth,"Serious Minded" Gail Cleland, Leonard Harrington Day, Alan Holmes Kimball, Harry Levi Osborn, Charles Oscar "Oscar" Perrine, Ludwig Rehfuess, Harold Alonzo Hal Savage, Joseph Leon "Joe" Taylor.
Shortly thereafter, in 1921, Alpha Kappa Lambda spread to the Midwest, opening Gamma chapter at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, our oldest continuously active chapter.
