Collection: Sigma Tau Gamma

Sigma Tau Gamma’s Founders’ grandparents were veterans of the Civil War. That was a domestic quarrel. In bravely heading to fight in World War I, our Founders embarked on a journey that would take them off of domestic soil and back to the old country in a battle unlike any from their generation could have imagined. General John J. (Black Jack) Pershing, a
native son of their state of Missouri, was selected by President Woodrow Wilson to command the American Expeditionary Force. As volunteers, our Founding Fathers would leave their Midwestern school and follow him into the War to End All
Wars. They were not ordinary men.

In an era when fewer than half of the nation’s young people advance beyond the eighth grade and fewer graduated from high school, these children of farmers, craftsmen, and shopkeepers in the sparsely populated rural counties of western Missouri were pursuing educational degrees. These two-year, post-high school programs qualified them to teach and administer public schools. Almost uniformly, they were as well qualified academically as students at the private and land grant colleges but simply lacked the financial resources necessary for enrollment at those schools. Together, they joined what was then called an Ambulance Company.