HISTORY

Theta Tau was founded as the “Society of Hammer and Tongs,” on October 15, 1904, by Erich Julius Schrader, Elwin Leroy Vinal, William Murray Lewis, and Isaac Baker Hanks, mining engineering students at the University of Minnesota. In 1911, representatives of the first three chapters and the alumni association met at the University of Minnesota for the first national convention, the name was changed to Theta Tau, a revised ritual approved, and the present badge adopted. Perhaps most important for its future expansion, it was decided that Theta Tau would include all branches of engineering. During the spring semester of 2014, our Theta Tau colony was founded at Florida State University. It then became our goal to create a thriving society for engineering students and become an official chapter of Theta Tau. As a colony, we established ourselves on campus, became larger as a whole, and followed the purpose of this fraternity: To develop and maintain a high standard of professional interest among it’s members, and to unite them in a strong bond of fraternal fellowship. On May 30, 2015 our first goal was achieved! We were initiated as the Phi Delta Chapter into the Theta Tau fraternity. Now as a full fledged chapter, we will continue to uphold our fraternity’s core values and purpose, and will grow to make an impact on not only our school, but our surrounding community as well.