During the First World War, I served as an ensign in the United States Navy aboard a minesweeper in the North Sea. Our ship and its partner exploded more than 1,000 magnetic mines. My law school background at Boston University led to my appointment to try court martial cases in our Division. Many court martial cases resulted. I saw young boys in their teens getting into trouble. Because of these e
xperiences, I made a firm resolution within myself that if I returned live, I would try to do two things and do them with all my power. First, do my best to help young people get the right start in life by holding up before them a "standard of manhood" that would withstand the test of time! Second and just as important, try to help the nations of the world settle their disputes in a more sensible and legal manner than by war. After the war, I became a student at Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania. One evening, while attending an American Legion banquet during my sophomore year, I sat next to an inspiring man named Herbert G. We were not related but we became fast friends. He, too, had been a naval officer but was now serving as the local Scout Executive. He helped me to become a Deputy Scout Commissioner. One of the troops needed a leader, so I became a Scoutmaster as well. Through these experiences, I found that the Scout Oath and Law were what I had been seeking - a standard of manhood that would withstand the test of time and a code of ideals created and accepted by some of the greatest leaders the world has ever known. The summer of my junior year was spent as an Associate Camp Director at the Easton Scout Reservation. Here I was impressed with the religious tolerance in the hearts of the boys. This I have not found so easily among older people. Scouts of the Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant faiths worked together in everything at camp, and everyone had an opportunity to worship on his Sabbath in his own way. My Brothers in the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity house, where I lived, who were outstanding for high ideals and clean living, were all former Scouts. I felt a college organization should be formed that would strengthen men in these ideals, and give them an opportunity or Leadership experience and for Service to others. As a senior at Lafayette College, I talked to some of the men with a Scouting background and the response was good. These men would join an organization based on the ideals of Scouting. I created the name Alpha Phi Omega, the motto and the Greek words and their meaning and wrote the Ritual. Everett W. Probst designed the pin and drew the Coat-of-Arms. Thane S. Cooley suggested the handclasp. Ellsworth S. Dobson and Gordon M. Looney helped write the Constitution and Bylaws. Fourteen undergraduates signed as charter Members. Scouting advisors were Dr. Ray O. Wyland and Herbert G. The Lafayette College Faculty approved the petition for recognition. On December 16, 1925, I conducted the Ritual Initiation at Brainerd Hall, second floor, and Alpha Phi Omega was born. My purpose was to make Alpha Phi Omega an organization for college men who cooperated with all youth movements, especially Scouting. I also anticipated that our Service program would expand to help people in need everywhere and to do service on the campus of each Chapter. As Scouting is worldwide, so should Alpha Phi Omega be worldwide, gradually in the colleges and universities of all the nations. Alpha Phi Omega can help bring about, through the future statesmen of the world, that standard of manhood and international understanding and friendship that will lead to a better, more peaceful world in which to live and in which to make a living and a life. In "The Story Behind The Founding", Alpha Phi Omega founder, Dr. Frank Reed Horton wrote: "As Scouting is worldwide, so should Alpha Phi Omega be worldwide, gradually in the in Colleges and Universities of all nations." Sometime after World War II, Sol Levy, a Scouter and an Alpha Phi Omega alumnus of Gamma Alpha chapter at University of Washington in Seattle, went to the Philippines. At a conference, Levy shared the idea of a Scouting-based fraternity and left Alpha Phi Omega publications with the Filpinos in attendance, among them Dr. Librado I. Ureta, who liked the idea. Starting in 1947, Dr. Librado organized Alpha Phi Omega at Far Eastern University in Manila where he was a graduate student. The response from a fellow scout was good. By the year 1950, Alpha Phi Omega already had more than 200 American chapters coast to coast, and the Filipinos were ready for official recognition by the school administration. On March 2, 1950, at Room 214 of the Nicanor Reyes Sr. Memorial Hall, the first organization of Alpha Phi Omega outside the United States was established by Dr. Librado Ureta's group of over 20 Scouts and advisors. Far Eastern University became the Alpha chapter of the Alpha Phi Omega of the Republic of the Philippines. Later in the same year, with the participation of other Scouts in Manila including those from the nearby Universities, Alpha Phi Omega rapidly and healthily grew in the Philippines. In its third year, it became a national organization with seven chapters chartered in Manila and Visayan campuses. It was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as a non-stock, non-profit, non-dividend corporation with a registered name of Alpha Phi Omega International Collegiate Service Fraternity.
