By Harold V. Jacobs

In 1906, when this story begins, the registration of the School was approximately 300 students. To this School of Commerce in the fall term came four ambitious young men, unknown to each other, but with a common desire for knowledge, wealth and position. As in any classroom these four met, but what drew them together was the fact that after classes were over these same men, from the same class, used the same subway, to go in the same direction to get to their respective homes. This association led to closer ties and better understanding of each other.

When the weather was clear it was a refreshing walk from the School south to the Brooklyn Bridge; a distance of about two miles. And what did we talk about? Girls, naturally. We discussed the possibility of forming a School of Commerce club, that could offer social as well as financial benefits to all who cared to join; although, in our minds the benefits were rather vague. Now these four men as you know were: Alexander F. Makay, H. Albert Tienken, Alfred Moysello, and yours truly. We outlined our plans to other students, but the response was disappointing.

In the spring of 1907 during our nightly walks we became more enthusiastic about the club idea and thought up another plan to recruit members. This time we tried to interest other classmen in this idea by asking them to meet us for dinner before class (at their own expense) at a restaurant near the School, but that failed too. We were rather discouraged, but so far it had cost us only wear and tear on our thinking. One night, I don't remember if the moon was out or if it was in the subway, we got a brilliant thought. Why not form a fraternity instead of a club?

One fraternity already existed in the School and had no difficulty in getting members. Then why not form another? We started contacting our classmates again and this time with better success. A number of men wanted to join us immediately, but the trouble was we didn't have a fraternity for them to join. We told our prospective brothers that we had not received our charter as yet, but as soon as we did we would initiate them.

School closed shortly after Memorial Day, but the four of us continued to meet evenings and Saturday afternoons to work out our plans for a fraternity. This was to start the following school semester which would be September of 1907. Makay and I were members of high school fraternities, so we had some idea of what a constitution, by-laws and a ritual should be like, but writing them was another matter! We eventually came up with what we thought was something really special. Our next headache was what to name our fraternity in Greek Letters, but first we had to know in English what we wanted to say in Greek. We decided on the words that best expressed our ideals and a friend of Moysello translated them into Greek for us—Delta, Sigma, Pi, being the first letters of the words that conveyed these ideals.

At the September opening, we, the four founders, rented a small room in the neighborhood of the school and in a short time we had initiated a number of men from our class of 1909. They in turn approached the class of 1910 and from this class came such outstanding and enthusiastic brothers as Past Grand President Phil Warner, our own dear Billy Mann, Dr. Lee Galloway, our faculty member, and many others. As the Fraternity grew so did our meeting places from one room to a large house and we even managed to maintain a summer home. By that time we were enjoying a high social life including dances, dinners and boating parties. To these affairs I invited a certain young lady. She had such a good time at these functions, and wishing to continue them and for other minor reasons, consented to become Mrs. Jacobs. She is still enjoying that fraternity spirit as you can see.

I hope my little story has conveyed to you a better understanding of the founding of our Delta Sigma Pi Fraternity.