Wesley Frost, Al-'21
The Founder of Lambda Chapter
The American Institute for Foreign Trade was founded in 1946 in Glandale, Arizona, just outside of Phoenix, on the former Thunderbird Army Air Corps Field. a historic air base established during World War II to train U.S., Canadian, British and Chinese pilots. (One can still see remnants of that earlier time in certain landmark buildings, including the airfield control tower, some barracks and airplane hangars that remain as part of the campus landscape.)
In 1946 Lieutenant General Barton Kyle Yount (1884-1949), the commanding general of the U.S. Army Air Training Command during World War II, created (and had incorporated) the American Institute for Foreign Trade, which then purchased for $1 from the federal government the (by that date deemed war surplus) Thunderbird Field.
Both a pioneer and visionary of his time, General Yount saw a growing demand for international executive talent. General Yount's dream was to create the first school of business to focus exclusively on international management. The school was chartered on April 8, 1946, with him as the Institue's first president. Classes began on October 1, 1946, and the school saw its first graduating class on June 14, 1947.
In the fall of 1946 Bro.Wesley Frost, Al-'21, just recently retired as a U.S. Ambassador, joined the Institute's faculty as professor of international relations. In 1947 he wrote several letters to the National Board, suggesting installing a chapter at the Institute. He advised the Board that the Institute was quite unlike any of the other institions of higher education then having Delta Phi Epsilon chapters, because its students were all post-graduate and its degree programs lasted for just two, or at most three, semesters.
Among the administrators at the Institute was Finley Peter Dunne, Jr., the recently retired Executive Director of the Temple of Understanding in Washington, DC. He joined Bro.Frost in urging Delta Phi Epsilon to expand to Arizona. In 1948 Bro. Paul C. Zipszer, Et-'47, became a new student at the Institute and joined with Bro. Frost and Mr. Dunne in urging Delta Phi Epsilon to install a chapter at Thunderbird. The Fraternity's National Board became quite inpressed with the Institute and encouraged Bros. Frost and Zipszer and Mr. Dunne to organize a student group which could then petition the Fraternity for installation as a collegiate chapter. In the spring of 1949 a recent Cal Berkeley graduate, Bro. Arnold C. Johnson, Ep-'48, also became a student at the Institute. He became the president of a newly formed "Foreign Trade Club", which formally requested the Fraternity to become Delta Phi Epsilon's latest chapter.
The chapter was officially installed on May 15, 1949, with at the outset a membership comprising a few Institute students who previously had been initiated into Delta Phi Epsilon by other chapters. A few days later, on May 21, 1949, the eighteen Charter Members of Lambda Chapter at the American Institute for Foreign Trade were initiated in the Civic Auditorium of nearby Litchfield, Arizona.
Lambda was the next chapter installation following Iota's in 1939. But it was given the Greek letter designation of "Lambda" rather than of "Kappa", which soon after was bestowed on the petitioning group from Stranford University in Palo Alto, CA, because the National Board had received and approved the Arizona group's petition after it had the Stanford group's and the Stanford group had been expecting to be called Kappa.
The National Board authorized the sending to Arizona of an installation team from the Southern California Alumni Association, comprised of Bro. Heman G. (Pat) Brady, De-'23, Bro. E. Eugene Jordon, Ep-'46, and Bro. Charles L. Ludtke, Al-'2, to preside over the installation ceremonies.
The first Chapter President of Lambda was Bro. Arnold C. Johnson, Ep-'47, and the first National Vice-President for Lambda was Bro. Wesley Frost, Al-'21.
In the fall semester of 1949 Lambda had two initiations, one in October and another in December. Among those who became brothers that October were Finley Peter Dunne and William Lytle Schurz.
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