Mary J. Wellington

Recollections in The Crescent, 1933:

From November 1898 to November 1899 was the time of my service as Chairman, as the highest position in Gamma Phi Beta was then called. I am the second of six members of Delta Chapter (Boston) who have held that office. Gamma Phi Beta then numbered eight collegiate chapters and, I think, four alumnae chapters. As at that time the Chairman was merely elected to meet any emergency between Conventions there is no constructive measure to report. The principal event was the pledging and initiating by another sorority of one of the members of Gamma Phi Beta who had transferred to a college where at that time there was no chapter of Gamma Phi Beta. All the dealings between the Grand President of that sorority and myself were very pleasant and the matter ended by an apology from the President to me and one from their convention to ours the next November. There I had the unpleasant duty of expelling – of course, a mere matter of form – the girl from Gamma Phi Beta, the first time a girl had been expelled. When I compare my year with the two years of the present time and all the work and responsibility now, I feel as if ‘past Grand President’ is certainly a misnomer.

Mary Wellington served as Chairman from 1898-99.