Alpha Zeta

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Alpha Zeta
ΑΖ
Founded	November 4, 1897 (1897-11-04) (114 years ago) The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
Type	Professional and Social
Scope	International
Mission statement	Alpha Zeta is the professional agricultural organization dedicated to the highest levels of scholarship, leadership, integrity and service.
Vision statement	Alpha Zeta is a global network of diverse agricultural professionals recognizing, developing and promoting leaders with common values and integrity.
Colors	Mode and Sky Blue
Flower	Pink Carnation
Publication	Alpha Zeta News
Chapters	74
Members	3,000 students collegiate 115,000 lifetime
Headquarters	Chesterfield, Missouri, USA
Homepage	Alpha Zeta Website

Alpha Zeta is a professional fraternity for students and industry professionals in the agriculture and natural resources fields. Founded in 1897 at The Ohio State University, Alpha Zeta is the first and oldest collegiate society for agriculture. Today, Alpha Zeta has over 117,000 alumni and 3,000 student members at 74 universities.

History

The fraternity was founded on November 4, 1897 by Charles Burkett, John Cunningham, and ten other agriculture students at Ohio State University.^[1]

Chapters

Chapters are named for individuals prominent in some way with respect to agriculture or after the locality of the chapter.

• Townshend - The Ohio State University - 1897
• Morrill - The Pennsylvania State University - 1898
• Morrow - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - 1900
• Cornell - Cornell University - 1901
• Kedzie - Michigan State University - 1902
• Granite - University of New Hampshire - 1903
• Nebraska - University of Nebraska-Lincoln - 1904
• North Carolina - North Carolina State University - 1904
• Wilson - Iowa State University - 1905
• Green Mountain - University of Vermont - 1905
• La Grange - University of Minnesota - 1905
• Centennial - Colorado State University - 1906
• Babcock - University of Wisconsin–Madison - 1906
• Maine - University of Maine-Orono - 1906
• Missouri - University of Missouri - 1907
• Elliott - Washington State University - 1907
• Purdue - Purdue University - 1908
• California - University of California-Berkeley - 1908
• Kansas - Kansas State University - 1909
• Dacotah - North Dakota State University - 1909
• Montana - Montana State University - 1912
• Scovell - University of Kentucky - 1912
• Georgia - University of Georgia - 1914
• Delaware - University of Delaware - 1916
• Oklahoma - Oklahoma State University - 1916
• Florida - University of Florida - 1922
• Cook - Rutgers University - 1922
• South Dakota - South Dakota State University - 1924
• Virginia - Virginia Tech - 1932
• Nevada - University of Nevada, Reno - 1963
• California Eta - California State University, Chico - 2004

Notable members

• Morris N. Abrams - Louisiana educator (LSU)
• John R. Block - Secretary of Agriculture under Ronald Reagan
• Norman Borlaug, Nobel laureate
• Earl Butz - U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (1971–1976) (Purdue, '31)
• Robert C. Baker - Professor Emeritus of Food Science, Cornell University; Inventor of the chicken nugget (Cornell '43)
• Herman Cain - former chairman and CEO of Godfather's Pizza
• Walter Clore - Father of the Washington Wine Industury
• Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. President
• Arthur Rose Eldred - Agriculturalist, first Eagle Scout recognized by the Boy Scouts of America (Cornell '16)
• Dan R. Glickman - U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (1995–2001); current president of the Motion Picture Association of America
• Edwin Jackson Kyle - Former U.S. ambassador to Guatemala (1945–1948), namesake of Texas A&M's Kyle Field (Cornell, '02)
• Henry C. Wallace - U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (1921–1924) (Honorary, '22)
• William Jardine - U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (1925–1929) (Kansas, '11)
• Henry A. Wallace - Vice President of the United States, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (1933–1940), Founder of Pioneer Hi-Bred, Secretary of Commerce (Wilson, '08)
• Ezra Taft Benson - U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (1953–1961) (Honorary, '53)
• Orville Freeman - U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (1961–1969), Minnesota Governor (Honorary, '62)
• Clifford Hardin - U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (1969–1971) (Purdue, '53)
• Richard Lyng - U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (1986–1989) (Wilson, '74)
• Albert Schatz - Co-discoverer of streptomycin with Selman Waksman (Cook)
• Selman Waksman - Discoverer of streptomycin and coined the word "antibiotic" (Cook)
• Kenneth E. Wing - President (1992–2002) of SUNY Cobleskill (Cornell '58)

• Clayton Yeutter - U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (1989–1991) (Nebraska, '50)
• Lester Brown- Founder of the Earth Policy Institute (Cook)

References

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External links

• http://www.alphazeta.org/ - Official Page
• http://www.alphazeta-cornell.org/ - Cornell Chapter Website