The
Beta Omega chapter of
Delta Tau Delta at University of California at Berkeley is currently located at:
2710 Durant Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704-1725
Their web site indicates that they could be moving to a new location.
The Alpha Chapter of Delta Tau Delta (DTD) was founded at Bethany College, West Virginia in 1860. The fraternal colors of DTD are purple, gold, and white. The national publication of DTD is the Rainbow.
In the March, 1898 issue of the Rainbow (Vol XXI, No,3), the story of the installation of the Beta Omega Chapter into the Fraternity was told by Kendric Charles Babcock.
THE INSTALLATION OF THE BETA OMEGA CHAPTER
It is quite as true of a chapter as it is of the individual man, that it is not good for it to be alone, and it was just because Beta Rho chapter was both alone, and very far off, in its Pacific coast world that the Fraternity has long been anxious to give it a worthy companion at the University of California. Indeed the grant of a charter to Beta Rho was conditioned upon the probability of early establishing a chapter at the older institution on the other side of the Bay. A year ago this probability seemed far from realization, but the consummation of the wise and far-sighted plans laid when the Stanford chapter was founded was reached in the installation of the Beta Omega chapter at the University of California, February the fifth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight.
The rivalries between Stanford and California were laid aside. Thoughts of the cardinal and of the blue and gold were forgotten under the banner of the purple, gold and white. The offer by Beta Rho of her house, her "Team" and her services in caring for the banquet, was accepted, and the men from Berkeley marched fearlessly into the territory of their dearest foe. In the most approved and generous fashion they were "taken in" by the chapter and the Fraternity. Rarely if ever has a new chapter been given an initiation finer in everything that makes for convenience and impressiveness. Instead of an improvised hall rented for the purpose, instead of a hotel or club where almost every object betrayed its alien use, the brothers and half-brothers gathered in the elegant home of the Beta Rho chapter in Palo Alto, in the completely equipped chapter hall of which the fourteen men were instructed in the secrets and principles of Delta Tau Delta, under the guidance of K. C. Babcock, Frank F. Rogers, and George H. Busch, aided by five members of the Beta Rho. When the formal initiation was over, the new Deltas had been made to feel the hearty grips of the older men that they were brothers, all, with unity of purpose and ideal, the fellows trooped down to the dining room and spacious hall to the tables daintily bedecked with pansies and smilax, there to receive a second and informal degree in high-minded good fellowship of the banquet hour, a degree in whose conferring the Beta Rho is almost without rival in the Fraternity.
Thirty-nine Deltas made up the company, thirty-three of them being actives. Owing to the limited accommodations of the house, only a few outside invitations were issued, but though the number of alumni was small, it was highly representative. There was no founder of the Fraternity to grace the occasion, but Captain E. E. Ewing, Beta '64, was no near one that the difference was not material. The presence of a man who belonged to the Beta chapter in 1862, leaving it to earn his captaincy in the Union Army, was an inspiration. It was like the times when men sat in privileged places in the Karneas and heard Prof. J. S. Lowe, and Dr. Robert Robinson tell the story of the Genesis of Delta Tau Delta, and at the same time in themselves illustrate the value and vitality of the ideals of the Fraternity. It is interesting to note that Captain Ewing wore the same badge that he had in '62. Dr. E. E. Kelley, Xi '80, was another San Francisco man who made the pilgrimage to Palo Alto and by becoming again one of the boys, showed them the admirable kind of men which Delta Tau has been making all along. K. C. Babcock was present in a double capacity, an alumnus of far way Beta Eta in Minneapolis, and a member of the Arch Chapter, while Hugh H. Brown and J. Mason Ross, two of the fathers of the Beta Rho, and Herman Jauss, Beta Pi '96, completed the contingency of alumni. The men forming the Beta Omega Chapter were: Fred R. Fairchild, George U. Moyse, Gilbert J. Rector, Philip R. Thayer; '99, D. Raymond Curtiss, Percy W. Hall, Wayne McCloud, Thomas W. MacPherson, Earle C. Swan; '00, Herbert W. Bailey, Percival Dolman, Maxwell L. McCollough, Ernest W. Oliver; '01, Edwin Merritt Rector.
The second part of the banquet consisted of the following toasts, liberally interspersed with cheers of colleges and classes, and with music:
Toastmaster - Kendric Charles Babcock, Beta Eta '89
"The Course of Empire," Hugh H. Brown, Beta Rho '96
"The work is finished - but we rest not," Fred R. Fairchild, Beat Omega '98
"When Greek Meets Greek," George H. Francis, Beta Rho '98
"Rah! Rah! Stanford!" Harry W. Durrell, Beta Rho '99
"Ha! Ha! Ha! California!" Gilbert J. Rector, Beta Omega '98
"An Infant Crying in the Night," Maxwell L. McCollough, Beta Omega '00
"Delta Tau Delta," Frank Fowler Rogers, Beta Rho '99
After the indispensable walk around and rousing rendering of the Fraternity and University yells, the company broke up. The memorable and delightful evening was a part of Delta history, and its influence a part of the lives or fourteen new Deltas. The long, manly struggle had culminated in the transformation of the petitioners into brothers, with a clear title to the coveted and responsible name. They have passed the severest ordeal to which petitioners had ever been submitted, and the Fraternity had added a chapter of bright, earnest, energetic men, to uphold and advance its interests in the Golden State. The event was officially made known by an engraved announcement sent in the name of the Arch Chapter to the officers and chapters of the Fraternity, and to the chapters of other fraternities represented at Stanford and California.