How Harry S. Truman Became a Lambda Chi
by Mike Raymond • August 2006 • 9 Comments •
President Harry S. Truman (Missouri-Columbia HON) was born on May 8, 1884, in the tiny city of Lamar, Missouri. He was the eldest child of John A. and Martha E. Truman. He was followed by a brother, John V., in 1886, and a sister, Mary Jane, in 1889.
Victor Swyden Interview
Deep in the archives of the Truman Presidential Museum and Library is a transcript of an interview with Victor F. Swyden (Missouri-Columbia 1936) concerning his recollection of how Truman became an honorary member of Lambda Chi Alpha. Swyden was a member of the Kansas City Council in 1963.
The interview, conducted by Neil M. Johnson, took place on April 10, 1984, and reveals the following:
Swyden: …while he was a senator and just before I went into the service, my fraternity offered him honorary membership. It didn’t materialize until after I was in the service. He became president, and then he became an honorary member of our fraternity, the Lambda Chi Alpha, in Columbia, Missouri. There are only two who have ever received that honor; they were President Truman and Senator (John) Danforth.
Johnson: Is that a social fraternity?
Swyden: Yes. It’s on the campus of the University of Missouri.
Johnson: So he accepted honorary membership?
Swyden: Yes. I’ll never forget. We had read in a news bulletin, that I got when I was overseas, that there was a matter of hours in which Mr. Truman disappeared; nobody knew where he was. He was up at the Power and Light Building being initiated into the Fraternity. They told me — I don’t know — they used my diamond pin so he could be initiated.
Johnson: Your diamond pin.
Swyden: Yes, so he wore my pin once.
Johnson: When would that have been?
Swyden: I’d like to give you the exact date, but it would have to be 1944 because I remember I was in the Pacific at that time, and I got a letter from home telling me about it.
Shortly after his sixth birthday, his family moved to Independence, Missouri. By all accounts he was a hard worker, serious, loyal to friends, and devoted to his family.
Though Truman attended the Kansas City Law School for two years in the early 1920s, he has the distinction of being the last U.S. president who did not graduate from college.
Truman joined the Missouri National Guard prior to the United States entering World War I. His desire to enlist in the Army National Guard was almost derailed due to his poor eyesight, but with determination and a bit of guile, he passed his physical examination by memorizing the eye chart.
His commanding officers recognized his administrative abilities and leadership qualities, and he was commissioned a lieutenant with the command of a regimental artillery battery.
His service in the U.S. Army would introduce him to a number of important friends and future political associates.
The President
He became friends with Lt. James M. Pendergast, nephew of T.J. Pendergast, a powerful Kansas City politician who would greatly influence Truman’s rise to presidency.
Truman married his long-time friend Bess Wallace in 1919. Their only child, Margaret, was born in 1924. Margaret Truman, a member of Pi Beta Phi, would become famous for playing the piano in the White House and her popular series of murder mystery novels.
Truman’s political career began in 1922 when, with the help of the Pendergast political machine, he was elected to an administrative judgeship for the Jackson County Court, Missouri.
In 1934, with considerable assistance from the Pendergast organization, Truman was elected as a “New Deal” Senator from Missouri. He was re-elected to the U.S. Senate in 1940.
Eventually, Truman’s popularity with the public and political leaders, his common sense approach to problem solving, and his strong political alliances gained him the Democratic Party nomination for U.S. vice president in President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s historic fourth bid for the White House.
Roosevelt and Truman handily won the election.
In a matter of months after becoming vice president, Truman succeeded to the presidency upon Roosevelt’s death.
The Mason
Truman was the second president to serve as a Masonic grand master. In 1940, he was elected the 97th Grand Master of the Missouri Grand Lodge.
His Masonic career began when he became a master Mason at the Belton Lodge #450 in Belton, Missouri, in March 1909. In 1911, he became the first Worshipful Master of the newly formed Grandview Lodge #618 located in Grandview, Missouri.
Truman was also a Scottish Rite Mason. He eventually received recognition as a 33rd degree Mason in honor of his Masonic activities.
It was reported that he preferred to be recognized as a past grand master, rather than past president, while attending a Masonic lodge. He was a Freemason for an impressive 62 years.
The Fraternity Man
Truman was invited to join Lambda Chi Alpha by Thomas L. Bear (Missouri-Columbia 1944), who was the chapter president at the time. Truman accepted the invitation to join Lambda Chi Alpha on July 17, 1944.
The initiation was originally scheduled to take place in the summer or fall of 1944. However, the political campaign, his inauguration as U.S. vice president, and the unexpected death of Roosevelt, delayed his initiation.
In 1945, the Cross & Crescent magazine reported that Truman was initiated in his office in the Federal Building in Kansas City, Missouri, at 11 a.m. on June 28, 1945. The earliest signed photo bears the date August 29, 1945.
The editor wrote that 14 members of the Kansas City Alumni Association, representing the University of Missouri chapter, initiated Truman in a simple ceremony. Brother Truman was recorded as Gamma-Kappa 213.
The hastily organized initiation was headed by Grand High Pi Dr. George Van Feist (Drury 1920) and was composed of brothers from at least nine chapters.
Each member of the delegation received a full color Lambda Chi Alpha coat of arms personally signed by Truman.
Though there are mildly conflicting versions of Truman’s initiation (see sidebar), both stories indicate that Truman was invited to membership in 1944. Only the date and site of his initiation differ.
It is possible that the Power & Light Building was also known as the Federal Building. It is well documented, however, that Truman was initiated in June 1945 and not in 1944 as Swyden remembered in his interview.
The Legacy
Most people remember Truman for his decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan that ended World War II, as well as his decision to fire General Douglas MacArthur for insubordination during the Korean conflict.
However, his real legacy can be traced to his many foreign policy decisions that blocked communist expansion throughout the world and his significant advances in human and political rights for all Americans.
For members of Lambda Chi Alpha, Truman’s life symbolizes the importance of each man becoming the best man he possibly can. His rise from farmer to President of the United States demonstrates our belief that each of us, no matter how humble or common our origin, can rise to greatness through hard work and dedication to high principles.
Truman died in 1972, followed by his wife in 1982. They are buried together in the courtyard of the Truman Presidential Museum and Library in Independence, Missouri.
Photo Credits in Order of Apperance
- © Lambda Chi Alpha, Some rights reserved.
- © Courtesy wiseacre, Some Rights Reserved.
- © Copyright Harry S. Truman Library & Museum., All Rights Reserved.
- © Lambda Chi Alpha, Some rights reserved.
- © Lambda Chi Alpha, Some rights reserved.
Philip C. Brooks Says:
August 2nd, 2006 at 7:11 pmMy father was the first director of the Harry S. Truman Library, from its opening in 1957 to 1971. We moved to Independence, MO, in 1957, and I graduated from William Chrisman High School, President Truman’s high school, in Independence in 1958.
I attended Claremont Men’s College, now Claremont McKenna College, my freshman year and then transferred to the University of Kansas for my sophomore year. When I was planning to transfer to KU in the summer of 1959 various Lambda Chis started to rush me. I mentioned my plans to attend KU, and my being rushed by Lambda Chis, to President Truman one day that summer, and he strongly recommended Lambda Chi Alpha. He went on at some length about how proud he was to be a member of the fraternity, told me about his being initiated in Columbia, MO, and urged me to join Lambda Chi if I thought the KU Lambda Chi chapter was the place for me. I did indeed think so and was delighted to be invited to pledge and later to be initiated. President Truman was happy to learn that I had become a Lambda Chi. Had he lived a good many years longer, he would I am sure have been equally happy to learn that our son also became a Lambda Chi.
Harry S Truman was one of our truly great presidents, and to him and the members of his administrations we owe a great deal of the shape of the free, postwar world. He was also very proud to be a brother in Lambda Chi Alpha.
Yours in ZAX,
Philip C. Brooks
ZI-256
Joe Krause Says:
August 3rd, 2006 at 7:04 amIt was good to see how President Harry S. Truman became a member of Lamda Chi Alpha. While much maligned by his opponents during his Presidency, Truman’s legacy is that of one of our finest, certainly most courageous and not foolish, Presidents. Our fraternity is the better for having such a man in our brotherhood.
Tom Earp, LX Z 1 Says:
August 3rd, 2006 at 3:49 pmIf You knew Harry like I knew Harry!
I go back to the house he was born in Lamar, Mo. My Uncle owned it, My Dad lived in the Harry bedroom, and I scuffed my shoes in the dirt off of the front pourch.
I first met President Truman at the Trinity Episcapal Church in Inedependence where Wife Bess was a member. This was after He was kicked out of the Babtist Church for drinking whiskey, smoking cigars and playing cards in Belton, Mo.
My Mom was a member of the Alter Guild with Bess and Dad used to kid Bess and Harry both, somethings I cannot mention, LOL!
By the way, Bess had the nastiest tasting chocolat I ever had.
The power and light building was never known as any part of the Federal Building system as Tom Pendergast and his Reddi-Mix concrete company buit all of the still standing structures.
Vic Sywden was a very colorful Polotician at the time and I never heard Doc George Feist mentioned about being in the Ritual Group, but He was a very pleasent and unassuming Brother.
Brother Truman was a man of little nonesense but decisive to say the least, ask Japan and McArther.
I said years back that He would go down as one of the best Presidents and I have been proven correct.
For My above Brother, I graduated from Van Horn!
Tom Earp
Mike Raymond Says:
August 8th, 2006 at 8:16 amBrother Tom,
Thank you for the clarifications and additional information about the Harry S. Truman article. Space limits prevented me from having some additional information about Truman appear in this article. I plam on providing some more information about him next month.
Tom, can you tell me more about the Federal Building at the time of his initiation?
Yours in ZAX,
Mike Raymond, ZU-384
Dick Anderson GK 366 Says:
August 14th, 2006 at 8:38 pmThe federal building may refer to the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank Building, where Bro. Truman had an office between leaving the presidency in 1953 and the opening of the Truman Library in 1957.
I never heard of his having an office in the power and light building, several blocks away.
Francis X. Nutto Sigma486 Says:
August 16th, 2006 at 11:37 amMy understanding is that Truman adopted “S” as a middle name - therefore it should not have a period after the “S.” ???
Jason Pearce Says:
August 16th, 2006 at 11:54 amBrother Nutto. This is a frequent comment we’ve received over the years. The Cross & Crescent magazine follows The Associated Press Stylebook, which reads:
The Assoicated Press and AP Style has called for the period since that time.
Truman has even signed his name with and without the period. Wikipedia has an example of his signature with the period.
J.C. Yelvington Says:
December 16th, 2006 at 1:31 amI’m curious if Lambda Chi has Masonic origins in either its ritual and/or history. Both Acacia and Kappa Alpha Order definitely do, and I’ve heard of other fraternities having Masonic roots. Found your site while researching Harry Truman. Keep up the good work…
Sincerely & Fraternally,
- J.C. Yelvington, Past Master
Texas Lodge of Research AF&AM
Kappa Alpha alumnus (Texas State University)
Matt Lathrop Says:
October 29th, 2007 at 8:08 amYes, Lambda Chi Alpha’s Ritual is based in the Masonic rites, speaking as an Active Lambda Chi Alpha Member and a 3rd Degree Master Mason. If you are ever in a mood for a good read, Ritual What and Why is a good book to pick up.
so in short yes, our ritual is based on some of the Masonic Teachings.
in ZAX
Matthew Lathrop
Theta Chi Zeta (eureka college)
Theta Chi #893
Lodge #239