National History
Our Founding Fathers sought to create a college fraternity on lines broader and more liberal than those employed at the time. It was their purpose to establish a fraternity in which all men were Brothers, no matter what their religion; a fraternity in which ability, open-mindedness, farsightedness, and a progressive, forward-looking attitude would be recognized as the basic attributes.
In 1895 at Yale University, a group of men were denied the right of admission into college fraternities because of their religious and racial backgrounds. The leaders of this group were three gentlemen, Frederick Manfred Werner, Louis Samter Levy, and Henry Mark Fisher - our Founding Fathers. Werner, Levy, and Fisher had a vision of a fraternity where neither sect nor creed shall ever act as a bar to admission for any man. In the preamble of the Founders' Bulletin, dated March 1895, it states: "We students at American colleges appreciating the need of a fraternity which shall eliminate all sectarianism do hereby associate ourselves in this Pi Lambda Phi Fraternity." Local History
In 1982, Glenn Moser and Lance Altizer transferred to Virginia Tech as already initiated brothers of Pi Lambda Phi Fraternity. Dr. Joseph Pitt, the Head of the Philosophy Department at Virginia Tech, found out that Pi Lambda Phi was trying to colonize at the campus. Joe, a Pilam alumnus from William and Mary, helped in the process of getting the chapter recognized and became VA OZ's faculty advisor.
The chapter became recognized on campus as a Chapter of a major National Fraternity and received its charter from Pi Lambda Phi's Headquarters on May 26, 1984. The founding fathers of the VA OZ Chapter at Virginia Tech are Lance Altizer, Mike Blow, Chris Miller, Glenn Moser, and Fred Villegas.
