the laws of the State of Rhode Island. Over another decade, Phi Kappa's Beta chapter would be founded through the incorporation of the Loyola Club of the University of Illinois on May 27, 1912. Over the following years, Phi Kappa would expand to several universities across the United States, particularly around the Midwest and Northeast. Five additional chapters would be founded by 1919, bringing the total to seven nationwide. Over the course of the next decade, Phi Kappa would see major expansion, tripling in size by the time of the fraternity's 40th anniversary year in 1929. Five chapters alone were founded within the first half of 1925, four of whom continue to be active today. The rapid growth Phi Kappa enjoyed would largely disappear in the subsequent two decades. The Great Depression gripping the United States in the 1930s and its entry into the Second World War in 1941 would see only five new chapters chartered between 1930 and 1950. A third of Phi Kappa's chapters, including the Alpha chapter at Brown, would go inactive during the Great Depression. Steady growth would resume in Phi Kappa's final years during the 1950s. At the time of the merger in 1959, 36 of the 39 Phi Kappa chapters chartered were still open and active, including the Alpha chapter at Brown University. Theta Kappa Phi (1919–1959) Theta Kappa Phi was founded on October 1, 1919, at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The idea for the organization developed from a group of men who were a part of the university's Newman Club that were interested in establishing a social fraternity. Of this original group, three men would go on to be the first members and founders of Theta Kappa Phi: August Concilio, Peter J. Carr, and Raymond J. Bobbin. Plans for the official establishment of the fraternity fell through upon the entry of the United States into the First World War in 1917, with several members subsequently joining the armed forces. Following the conclusion of the war in November 1918 and the return of members back to school, Carr led efforts to restart the process of establishing a social fraternity at Lehigh. Ultimately thirty men, including Concilio, Carr, and Bobbin, agreed to the establishment of the X Club, the original name of Theta Kappa Phi. During the first few months of the new fraternity's existence, several important actions were undertaken. In a meeting on