About Us

The Foundation was originally formed in 1960 by student, alumni and faculty by Brothers of Alpha Chapter of Delta Phi Epsilon Fraternity and was later incorporated with the adoption of a Certificate of Incorporation on May 16, 1962 and filed in the District of Columbia on May 23, 1962.

The original Certificate had four Articles detailing the name, duration, purposes and number of Trustees. These Articles remain unchanged to the current date, although the number of Trustees was reduced to seven in 1984.

To assure that all three classes of Alpha Chapter Brothers would be represented on the governing board of the Foundation, the initial Trustees included three undergraduate brothers, three alumni brothers and three Georgetown faculty brothers. The following individuals constituted the initial Board of Trustees:

Without meaningful financial assets and no experience in fundraising, the objectives of acquiring property for a headquarters, create a library and provide a site for programs had to be postponed.

Seven of the initial Trustees remained in office as of January 1983. James Condren and John Leahy had died in the interim. At a meeting on January 25, 1983, the number of Trustees was reduced to seven with the remaining original Trustees continuing to serve. At the same time, the following persons were elected as officers:

A decision was made to seek tax exempt status for the organization in order to raise funds to support the activities of the Foundation. Alpha Chapter Brother Albert L Grasso, a tax attorney, volunteered to apply to the Internal Revenue Service for exemption pursuant to Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

As part of the application process, the Certificate of Incorporation was amended on March 29, 1984 to add Articles Five through Seven to comply with IRS requirements for exemption. The complete Certificate of Incorporation is included on the website.

In due course, with Brother Boyle as Treasurer and serving as the principal contact with the IRS, the Foundation was qualified as a Section 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization. A copy of the IRS Letter dated May 20, 1985, is included on the website. The initial grant of exemption was subject to review within five years by the IRS for compliance with all legal requirements. By Letter dated April 15, 1990, final approval by the IRS of the tax exemption was granted. A copy of the April 1990 letter is also included on the website.

Between 1983 and 2005, numerous Alpha Chapter Brothers served as officers and trustees. During this period, Brother Boyle, in his capacity as Treasurer, raised $300,000 as an endowment fund for the Foundation with the intention of investing these donations into a fund to acquire a permanent home for the Foundation and use interest earnings for other Foundation activities, including scholarships and programming. The modest amounts of assets raised by donations plus the realty prices in the Georgetown area precluded a purchase at the time.

By December 2005, the remaining four of the original Trustees (vonStroebel, Walsh, Norelli, and Porreco) died or resigned and were replaced by younger Alpha Chapter alumni brothers. All Trustees were alumni brothers thereafter. Brother Boyle remained as the sole constant throughout this period and until his retirement in 2021 as Treasurer upon attaining age 80.

No additional fundraising activities were conducted during the ensuing periods. The primary focus became educational programming. For example, between October 2013 and February 2019, the Foundation sponsored 19 educational lectures. Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic additional lectures have been curtailed but are now expected to be renewed.

Following a decision by Georgetown University to require most undergraduate students to reside in university housing, maintenance of the Alpha Chapter fraternity house as a residence for undergraduate brothers became untenable. The undergraduate brothers of Alpha Chapter, with the support of a substantial number of alumni Alpha Chapter brothers who expressed an opinion, decided to donate the house to the Foundation with the expectation of a sale. Due to the tax exempt status of the Foundation, a sale by the Foundation meant that the sales proceeds would not be reduced by taxes. Without the donation a sale would be subject to substantial taxes.

The fraternity house was donated to the Foundation and sold for $2,650,000. After selling expenses, the net proceeds equaled slightly less than $2,270,000. The proceeds were held in escrow pending review by the D.C. Office of the Attorney General and ultimate approval by a judge on the D.C. Municipal Court. The Trustees committed to hold the proceeds in interest bearing assets for use in accordance with an Alpha House Fund Plan (the House Plan) subject to approval by the Alpha Chapter Brothers. On several occasions during the pendency of the review, a substantial majority of the Alpha Chapter brothers voted to reaffirm the donation to the Foundation and ratified the House Plan. A copy of the House Plan is included on the website. Final review and approval was granted and the escrowed funds were released to the Foundation on August 12, 2024.

As of May 11, 2020, the Trustees included:

At the time, these Trustees were the guardians of the original goals and objectives of the Foundation. Upon the donation of the fraternity house they realized that the funds to pursue such goals might soon be available.

At the time final approval was granted only Brothers Stewart, Picozzi and Eriksen continued to serve. Newly appointed trustees include Carlos Roa, Kenneth W Bleakley (subsequently deceased), Albert L Grasso and Timothy J Rosenberger. The current Board of Trustees has commenced to fulfill the original goals and objectives of the Foundation. The current Trustees are also committed to honoring the terms of the House Plan and have set aside the net proceeds of $2,270,000 plus the additional $300,000 previously accumulated by Brother Terry Boyle in a separate endowment fund. The fund is presently invested in U.S. Treasury obligations. The principal is being held for compliance with the House Plan. Interest income thereof will be used to support other Foundation activities. Within days of receiving the sale proceeds, the Foundation created its first scholarship program. The Foundation has also announced the creation of two additional scholarship programs to commence in 2025. A Program Committee has been created and arrangements are being made to restart the lecture series suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic. Additional information on both the Scholarship Programs and the lecture Program can be found elsewhere on the website.

All Those Who Have Ever Served as Trustees