Lewis College of Business 1929
Gamma Phi Delta Sorority, Inc. was founded February, 1943, by the late Elizabeth Garner, teacher and the late Violet T. Lewis, owner of Lewis Business College, Detroit, Michigan. The founders, along with the other eleven members are known as the Sorority's 13 Original Pearls. Each of the teachers pledged to organize a chapter of the Sorority in her home city. In Feb
ruary 1946, the next chapter to be formed was Gamma Chapter in Indianapolis, Indiana, Ivalue Lennear's hometown. As a special dispensation, the chapter was allowed to use Gamma (instead of Beta, the second letter in the Greek alphabet) as its name. The purpose of the organization is:
1. To unite fraternally for charitable, educational and fraternal purposes, and to establish and maintain active chapters throughout the United States.
2. To foster the improvements of the educational and vocational status of young people with special emphasis on underprivileged youth.
3. To assist said youth through broadening their educational objectives by encouragement, dissemination of information and financial assistance, and to promote the beneficial use of acquired education and/or training to the best interest of the community. To create a better understanding between women of all races and creeds; promoting higher education through encouragement and financial aid; and to promote cultural enrichment and to serve mankind. Gamma Phi Delta Sorority attracts business-women and professional women from many fields, and Chapters are located throughout the United States. On the National level, four (4) scholarships and two (2) Endowments are awarded annually. The Scholarships are: The Gamma Phi Delta Merit Scholarship; the Elizabeth Garner Memorial Scholarship; the Violet T. Lewis Memorial Scholarship and the Undergraduate Scholarship. And the Endowment Funds are; The Luthermae E. Adams Endowment Fund and The Ann McElwee Perpetual Endowment Fund. In addition, our member chapters award scholarships on the local level. The most satisfying and rewarding experience is the four youth groups, Rosebuds, Phi-Teens, Junior Cavaliers and Cavaliers. Youth group programs promote the continual quest for knowledge and academic excellence and it epitomizes the Sorority's aim of striving for refinement and culture. Each group is challenged to achieve their worthwhile goals through association with Gamma Phi Delta Sorority, Inc. Gamma Phi Delta supports charities that are serving humanity and whose objectives are paralleled to our aims. Our chapter members with charities of their choice, contribute their time, expertise and finance. Gamma Phi Delta is non-political and non-sectarian. However, we encourage members to participate in political actions of their choosing and welcome members of religious beliefs and a general recognition of a Supreme Being is a part of our CREED.
