Tri Delta Living
Honoring the Past, Celebrating the Future Newly renovated Delta Lambda house ushers in the future of Tri Delta at Butler hen the members of Delta Lambda Chapter moved into the newly renovated house at Butler University in August, one of the first things they were drawn to was the archival gallery. “We always had a lot of photos randomly scattered around the house, but no one paid much attention to them,” said Collegiate Chapter President Emma Thom. “Now they are front and center.” From a beautiful painting of the exterior of the house and historic photos to fascinating stories and chapter memorabilia, the carefully curated archives pay tribute to the rich history of Delta Lambda Chapter, the over 90-year-old house, and the generations of women who helped build our sisterhood.
Connecting the Past and Present Delta Lambda members have called 809 West Hampton Drive home since 1930, and the historical nature of the Tudor-style home isn’t lost on the women who have lived there. Teresa Morton Nyhart, initiated in 1980, said, “When you walk up to that beautiful house, you see the stairwell going up and down, and you see the lovely living room. Even though parts of it have been remodeled, those historical elements are there and remain. It’s hard not to walk through those elements and think of the
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The Trident Fall 2021
history, the longstanding nature of the house and the chapter and where it’s been. This new house and everything Tri Delta Housing has done to give it new life going forward is tremendously exciting.” Since its founding, Delta Lambda Chapter has had an important place in Tri Delta history. Although the chapter was closed in 1995 due to declining membership numbers, it was reinstalled 10 years later in 2005. And throughout its nearly 100-year existence as a chapter, Delta Lambda has given our Fraternity so much. It was Delta Lambda that gave Tri Delta the only Greek-letter mothers’ sorority, Tri Psi. A group of mothers of Butler Tri Deltas gathered to form the organization—with the help of Sarah Ida Shaw—shortly after the founding of Delta Lambda in 1914. Today, Tri Psi is an international organization with chapters across North America comprised of mothers who come together to support their Tri Delta daughters. The chapter has also given us a Fraternity President, Mary K. Wise Jensen, Butler, who led our sisterhood from 1948 to 1952. It was Mary K who was also Tri Delta’s very first Diamond Circle recipient, celebrating 75 years of Tri Delta membership in 1996. Deidre Morton Pettinga, initiated in 1983, remembers being in awe of the fact that her chapter had someone who had served as Fraternity president. “I can remember going to Convention in
