HISTORY OF THE OMEGA CHAPTER

                On June 2, 1904, the charter of the Omega Chapter was granted to the following men: Lucius Gartell Baird, Lindsley Diheman Beach, Jesse Howlett Draper, Meldrim Thompson, Luther Zeigler Rosser, Jr., William Gilmer Dessau, Howard Elgin Parker, and William Lucas Simons.

For the first six years of its existence, the Omega Chapter was housed in a rented hall in downtown Atlanta. In 1910 the Atlanta alumni took the initiative in obtaining a chapter house for the group on Georgia Tech campus. Through the foresight of Thomas W. Connally shortly after the founding of the Omega Chapter in 1904, an accumulative fund was started by having each graduate sign notes payable $10.00 a year for ten years with the idea that this money would eventually be used for building a house for the chapter. On November 3, 1913, a charter was granted by the Superior Court of Fulton County, incorporating the Omega Trust Association. The first officers of the Association were as follows: J.R. Baldwin, President; F.L. Shackleford, Vice-President; Thomas W. Connally, Secretary-Treasurer. Brother Connally retained this office until his death, and during this period by his able handling of notes and collection of the same, sufficient funds accumulated by 1924 to purchase a desirable lot adjacent to the Tech Campus. In 1927, the active chapter with Brother William C. Wardlaw, Jr. as Alpha, and the Omega Trust Association with William A. Parker as President, conducted an active campaign among all Chi Phi Alumni residing in and near Atlanta, for sufficient funds to build a chapter house. In two month’s time the campaign was brought to a successful conclusion. The house was started in the middle of 1928 and was completed at the beginning of fall quarter, 1929, and the dream of our beloved Tom Connally had become a reality.

Omega is one of very few chapters of the Chi Phi Fraternity that remained active during both world wars. During World War I the Chapter remained in its own house although 117 valiant sons of Omega fought under the Stars and Stripes and four brothers gave their lives. In World War II the school took over the Omega House, but seven of the brothers who remained on campus continued holding regular meetings and pledging students who came into the Navy’s V-12 Program until there was a sufficient number to rent the former Alpha Tau Omega house. In August 1944, the school released the chapter house. Six Omegas made the supreme sacrifice during World War II.

The management of the financing of the house continues to be handled by the Omega Trust Association. The wisdom of such an arrangement for ownership was clearly proved during the days of the depression through which the Association carried much of the burden of financing the chapter besides carrying the loan on the property.