The Alpha Beta Phi Chapter History

Dr. Michael C. C. Adams, History and Geography Department Chair, applied for a new chapter of Phi Alpha Theta at Northern Kentucky University in the spring of 1985 and requested that Dr. James A. Ramage serve as Faculty Advisor. On April 16, 1985, Alpha Beta Phi Chapter was officially installed at a banquet in which 37 charter members were recognized: 22 students and 15 faculty. Dr. Chester R. Young, Professor of History at Cumberland College and member of the International Council of Phi Alpha Theta, presided over the initiation ceremony in the NKU University Center. Dr. James C. Klotter of the Kentucky Historical Society was the guest speaker at the first banquet.

Kenneth E. Hughes, the Chapter's first Historian, organized the Chapter journal Perspectives in History and served as its first editor. Scott K. Fowler was first President. The Chapter has been active on campus and in Phi Alpha Theta from the beginning. Members have given papers at the Regional Meetings, and on the tenth anniversary of the Chapter in April 1995, Alpha Beta Phi hosted the Kentucky Regional Meeting at NKU. Dr. Michael C. C. Adams, History and Geography Department Chair, Dr. Rogers Redding, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Dr. Paul Gaston, Vice President and Provost of NKU, supported the meeting with funding that made possible the guest lecture by Dr. George C. Wright, Director of the African & Afro-American Studies Program at Duke University. Seven graduate and thirteen undergraduate papers were delivered at the 1995 Kentucky Regional Meeting.

On March 31, 2001, the Chapter hosted its second Regional Conference. Dr. Graydon A. Tunstall Jr, Executive Director of Phi Alpha Theta, came from Tampa, Florida to participate and deliver our luncheon address. Students from Cumberland College, Georgetown College, Murray State University, Thomas More College, Transylvania University, University of Louisville, Xavier University, and Northern Kentucky University gave sixteen papers.

For more information on the original members and the faculty advisor, please view the Chapter Members section.