The History of Delta Omega

Delta Omega is a national honor society founded to encourage research and scholarship among students engaged in graduate study in public health and to recognize attainment in the field of public health.1

Since 1924, the Society has had eighteen local chapters consisting of about 4,000 members.2 A National Executive Council, made up of elected officers and delegates from the local chapters, administers the affairs of Delta Omega. The Society is governed by a constitution and set of bylaws. Schools and universities accredited by the Council on Professional Education may establish local chapters. However, final approval rests with the National Council.3 Delta Omega limits its membership to public health faculty, students and alumni. Each candidate must also meet membership criteria as set forth in the constitution and bylaws. The Society accepts only students meeting high academic standards. All candidates must demonstrate a potential for making significant contributions to the field of public health.4 5

On the national level, Delta Omega has made several contributions to advance the mission of the Society. It has sponsored a number of scholarly events throughout its history, most of them occurring during the annual meetings of the American Public Health Association. During these meetings, Delta Omega holds its yearly business meeting and the Society has used the occasion to sponsor lectures on timely public health topics. Another sponsored event is the presentation of Delta Omega Merit Awards to students, faculty and alumni to recognize outstanding achievement in the field of public health. More recently, the Society has sponsored award-winning essays on the topic of "Public Health as Social Justice." Finally, Delta Omega periodically underwrites the republication of classic works in the history of public health that have not been readily available to public health workers through traditional libraries.

The primary activities of the Society, however, are at the local level. Each local chapter generally sponsors events suited to its own needs and resources. These events often include electing new members each year and nominating candidates for national awards. The Society also holds annual luncheons or dinners to welcome new members. Some chapters publish newsletters. Others sponsor lectures and scientific symposia. Many chapters arrange for student poster sessions and scholastic competitions. A group of officers, chosen from the faculty and students of the school where the chapter resides, governs the local chapters. Upon local induction, new members receive a certificate of membership, making them eligible to bear the official Delta Omega letters engraved on a key or keypin.

Delta Omega was founded at The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in May 1924 by two graduate students, Edgar Erskine Hume and Claude W. Mitchell. At the time, public health as a profession was still in its infancy and the graduate schools of public health had only recently come into being.6 In the years before the establishment of university-based education in public health, entrance into the field had been largely through the gate of practical experience and political favor. To promote graduate study in public health, it seemed appropriate to Hume and Mitchell to organize an honorary society to recognize outstanding achievement in the new field.7

Edgar Erskine Hume was born in Frankfort, Kentucky on December 26, 1889. He received a BA from Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, in 1908 and an master's degree in 1909. He attended the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, earning his medical degree in 1913. He later completed his Public Health doctorate at The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1924.

Hume served for most of his life in public health efforts in the military. He was in the Army Medical Corps from 1916 to 1951 where he became a leading medical authority involved in combating disease all over the world. He fought typhus epidemics in Siberia, Russia and in Naples, Italy. During World War II, he headed military governments for the American troops occupying Naples, Milan, Rome and Florence. One of the most decorated soldiers in American history, Hume was also a librarian at the Army Medical Library for part of his career (1922-26, 1932-36 and 1936-1943). The author of more than 400 books and articles on scientific and historical topics, Hume died in 1952.8

Claude William Mitchell was born in Kansas on May 27, 1889. He received his BA in 1910, his MA in 1911 and his PhD in 1913, all from the University of Nebraska. He earned his medical degree from Rush Medical College in 1916 and his doctorate in Public Health from The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1925. An assistant surgeon in the United States Public Health Service from 1917 to 1925, he later went into private practice in Silver Spring, Maryland. Mitchell died in 1976.9

The School of Hygiene and Public Health at Johns Hopkins was established in 1916. The University, however, did not finish construction of the new public health building on Wolfe Street until 1925. The School, meanwhile, operated out of temporary quarters in downtown Baltimore in buildings formerly used by the University's Arts and Sciences division. Most of the school's activities took place in the old physics building.10

A number of students attending the new Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health worked, or were on military duty, in nearby Washington D.C. They commuted to school and work via the one-hour train ride between Washington and Baltimore.11

The idea for Delta Omega arose during the train rides that Hume and Mitchell shared as they commuted. They both felt that if public health was to occupy a position comparable to that of the other professions, it should have an honorary fraternity.12 One of the primary objects of such a society, as they saw it, would be to link those institutions engaged in giving graduate instruction in public health in this country.13

Their goal was to strengthen the fledgling profession and put it on a more equal footing with the already established specialties.

Mitchell was originally in favor of a social fraternity. Hume, however, felt that there was no need for such an organization at Hopkins. What the profession needed was an honor society comparable to those in medicine, law, theology and other professions.14 Mitchell eventually agreed. The pair then consulted William Henry Welch, the director of the School and probably the most influential person in the field of medicine and public health at the time. They also consulted William Henry Howell, the great Hopkins physiologist, and Wade Hampton Frost, professor of epidemiology. Welch and Howell were enthusiastic and offered support. Mitchell and Hume, therefore, proceeded to organize the new society.

Early in 1924, Mitchell and Hume organized two preliminary meetings to discuss the Society. Nine students attended the first meeting; thirteen attended the second. The group agreed to proceed with the organization. They then appointed temporary officers to govern until they could decide on the full membership. They elected Mitchell temporary chairman, who, in turn, appointed Milford E. Barnes as temporary secretary-treasurer.

The group then appointed a committee to choose the charter members. They decided on seventeen regular members, one faculty member and one alumnus. Beside the founders, Doctors Mitchell and Hume, the other charter members included Charles A. Bailey, Milford E. Barnes, Yves M. Biraud, James B. Black, John W. Brown, W. Thurber Fales, Martin Frobisher Jr., Raymond D. Fear, John F. Kendrick, Shelton S. King, Edward A. Lane, Hilario Lara, Hynek J. Pelc, Persis Putnam and George H. Ramsey. The group chose William Henry Welch as the first faculty member. They then picked James Angus Doull as the first alumnus member. Many in this group eventually became leaders in the field of public health. (For brief biographical sketches of these individuals, see Appendix A at the close of this history).

After the group chose the charter members, they then proceeded to appoint committees. They established committees for membership and insignia design, a committee on certificates and one to draft a constitution. Finally, they appointed a committee to arrange the annual dinner.

After having consulted with Doctor Welch, the membership committee reported its findings. The committee felt that the only real justification for Delta Omega at Johns Hopkins should be to recognize and stimulate scholarship in the School or to recognize some other clearly stated achievement in the field of public health. If Delta Omega limited itself to these goals, the Society would then stand for something definite and worthwhile. The group suggested that the faculty select a certain number of outstanding students each year, these students to automatically become members of the Society. Candidates who were not students could be elected based upon past degrees taken, past positions held or other public health accomplishments. Doctor Welch suggested certain modifications in student selection. He agreed that the faculty would furnish recommendations but was adamant that the regular membership vote on all the new members. The issue of membership criteria never did quite meet everyone's expectations and caused problems for Delta Omega throughout its early history.15

The Society next proceeded to adopt a tentative constitution and to elect permanent officers. The first set of elected officers were Claude Mitchell as President, Charles Bailey as Vice President, Persis Putnam as Treasurer and Milford Barnes as Secretary.

On May 6, 1924, the insignia committee reported on their deliberations. The insignia of the Society would be a golden key with a circular center approximately the size of a dime. It would have the Greek letter Delta Omega on its face. On the back would be the initials of the University, the member's name, year of election and the Greek letter for the local chapter. The local chapter at The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health chose the name Alpha because it was the first chapter. The keys would cost nine dollars for the first group of members and six dollars thereafter.

There is some dispute regarding the origin of the name Delta Omega. Justin Andrews, an early president of the Society, and a faculty member in Medical Zoology, recalled that the name Delta Omega was chosen by the charter members because the word Delta (a Greek triangle) "represented physicians, sanitarians & research workers, the three classes of students interested in public health." He also recalled that the word Omega was chosen because the Society "was from an honorary standpoint the last and final one which a public health worker in the field or laboratory might be elected."16

In later years (1942), however, Edgar Hume the co-founder stated that he coined the name arbitrarily and that the letters had no special significance.17 In any event, after the insignia committee reported, the group spent the next few meetings drawing up the Society's constitution. They approved it on May 14, 1924 after review by Doctor Welch. The constitution outlined the mission of the Society and the requirements for group and individual eligibility. It also outlined governance on the national and local levels. Finally, it called for an annual convention.

After approving the constitution, the Society proceeded to elect the first group of members under the terms outlined. The faculty suggested a list of the eligible candidates consisting of sixty-one names. The group chose eleven new members from this pool. They were Richard A. Bolt, William A. McIntosh, Doris A. Murray and George H. Boyd, Mary J. Chapman, Anna Baetjer, Martha Eckford, Harry Kruse, Francis A. Coventry, Elizabeth I. Parsons and Thomas F. Sellers. The chapter also chose Huo-Ki Hu, Carl R. Doering, Thomas J. LeBlanc, Thomas S. Sweeney, Lemuel R. Cleveland, Joseph M. Scott, John A. Ferrell and Raymond C. Salter as alumni members.

Delta Omega also elected three honorary members in 1924. These were Sir Arthur Newsholme, Watson S. Rankin and Sara Josephine Baker. The criterion for electing honorary members was such that any chapter could nominate someone. Eighty percent of the parent chapter, however, had to approve them. Nominees were to have exceptional credentials in the field of public health. The first three chosen certainly met this qualification.

Sir Arthur Newsholme was one of the leading British public health experts of his day. He was the Principal Medical Officer of the Local Government Board of England. He was a noted lecturer, sanitary investigator and researcher. Newsholme was the first professor of public health administration at The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health (1919-1921). He "stimulated the growth of knowledge and the application of public health principles and aided in the formulation of fundamental principles in preventive medicine."18

Watson S. Rankin was the former Director of the Duke Hospital and Director of the Duke Endowment. He was a state health officer who later (1920) became President of the American Public Health Association. Rankin was noted for raising public health administration standards and contributing "to the solution of the problems of rural health and hospitalization."19

Sara Josephine Baker was a pioneer in child health issues. She was a writer, educator and pioneer on the subject of child care and made an enormous contribution to the reduction of infant and maternal mortality. Her accomplishments conferred the benefits of good health on thousands of mothers and children.20

After the elections, the group recessed for the summer. Edward Hume used the break to promote new Delta Omega chapters in other East coast schools while Richard Bolt similarly worked in the West.21

By the next meeting, held on October 15, 1924, Hume reported that the organization of chapters at Harvard (Beta) and M.I.T. (Gamma) had begun. These new chapters were immediately approved. Later that year, chapters at the University of Michigan (Delta) and at Yale (Epsilon) were also approved.22

By the end of the year the Society was already making plans for a national convention. Alpha Chapter elected Edgar Hume and Richard Bolt to be their representatives on the new National Council which was to form. The members of this council, once assembled, would eventually administer the governance of Delta Omega on a national basis.

In February of 1925, Alpha Chapter elected more faculty members. After this election, a sizable portion of the faculty of the School became members of Delta Omega. These included William H. Howell, Janet Clark, Allen Freeman, E.V. McCollum, Raymond Pearl, Roscoe Hyde, Lowell Reed, Charles Simon and Nina Simmonds. Alpha Chapter held two more meetings in 1925 and elected new students to membership.

The first national organization meeting was scheduled to be held May 31, 1925. It was to take place during the meeting of the American Medical Association.23

Unfortunately, no minutes for this meeting are in the Society's archive. It is curious to note that at the next meeting of Alpha Chapter, held in December of 1925, the group made no mention of the first national meeting. Perhaps the meeting was canceled or perhaps it was too uneventful to report upon. The minutes of the December 1925 meeting of Alpha Chapter do, however, indicate that a problem had arisen. This problem may have been related to the delay in organizing the National Council. The minutes show that at some point in 1925, Claude Mitchell, the Alpha Chapter President and co-founder, left the United States Public Health Service to enter the private practice of medicine in Silver Spring, Maryland. Mitchell then relinquished his position in Alpha Chapter. After this, Alpha Chapter went without meeting for several months in 1925. When they did meet, they almost decided to disband. The membership agreed to continue, however, by a margin of one vote, four to three with three abstentions.

With their first crisis averted, the members infused new life into Alpha Chapter. They appointed Persis Putnam as the President, replacing Mitchell. The group committed themselves to more and better meetings and they voted to hold the annual dinner. In March of 1926 the University of California applied for a chapter and Alpha Chapter approved the application. In May of the following year (1927), a national meeting was scheduled for the fall in Cincinnati. Alpha Chapter agreed to turn over its supervisory function to the National Council at this meeting as part of the process of making Delta Omega into a national organization.

On October 19, 1927 the chapters of Delta Omega assembled at the Gibson Hotel in Cincinnati. Delegate John A. Ferrell represented Alpha Chapter with Milford E. Barnes as Alternate. Beta Chapter (Harvard) sent Edward G. Huber with Walter J. Connell as Alternate. The Gamma Chapter (M.I.T.) chose James A. Tobey and Alternate Clair E. Turner to represent their membership. The Delta Chapter (Michigan) sent Nathan Sinai with George T. Palmer as Alternate. The Epsilon Chapter (Yale) sent C-E.A. Winslow and Alternate Leonard Greenburg. Richard A. Bolt, a transfer from the Alpha Chapter, represented the University of California (Zeta).

The new parent group immediately went into action. They adopted a new constitution and formulated by-laws. They elected national officers for the ensuing year (1927-28). C-E.A. Winslow was elected President with Edgar Hume as Vice President and James A. Tobey as Secretary-Treasurer.24 The group then prepared forms for issuing chapter charters and certificates and they assembled membership lists. They voted to call on Alpha Chapter for the funds now under their jurisdiction. They also voted that the President appoint a committee to investigate reprinting certain classic publications in public health under Delta Omega's name. They recommended that all the local chapters hold public health lectures. Finally, the group urged all chapters to present annual reports at each national meeting.

The new officers were well known figures in the field of public health. The president, Charles-Edward Amory Winslow, was the Anna M. R. Lauder Professor of Public Health at the Yale University School of Medicine from 1915 to 1945. Born in Boston in 1877, Winslow received his B.S. and M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For eight years he was at M.I.T. on the faculty in sanitary bacteriology. From 1910 to 1914 he was Associate Professor of Biology at New York City University and from 1910 to 1922 he was the Curator of Public Health at the American Museum of Natural History. From 1932 to 1957 he was Director of the John B. Pierce Laboratory of Hygiene. He died in 1957.25

The Secretary-Treasurer, James A. Tobey, was born in Quincy, Massachusetts in 1894. He received his B.S. in 1916 and his Doctorate in Public Health in 1927, both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his M.A. from American University in 1923. Tobey held a variety of public health positions early in his career. He was a health officer in New Jersey from 1916 to 1919. He also worked with the American Red Cross, the National Health Council and the Institute for Government Research. He spent the bulk of his career (1926 to 1937) as the Director of Health Services for the Borden Company. In 1937 he took a position with the American Institute of Baking. Tobey was also Associate Editor of The American Journal of Public Health from 1918 to 1929. He was an expert in the legal aspects of public health.26

The constitution and by-laws of the new National Council required a two thirds vote in order to admit new chapters into the Society. It recommended that all chapter members be chosen with "due regard to their scholarly attainments and with the object of maintaining the honorary character of the Society."27

It limited active membership to public health faculty or to students who were degree candidates in public health. These students must also have finished at least three fourths of a full year working toward an advanced degree and they must have been intent upon a career in public health after graduation.28 The Society asked an initiation fee of $9.00 from each new member. This was later reduced to $7.00. The money was used to pay for the insignia key and certificates, with the rest to go to the national chapter. Delta Omega would pay other expenses by special assessment.

By the end of the first national Delta Omega conference, the new council, equipped with a constitution and by-laws, had taken over the governance from Alpha chapter. This is exactly what the co-founders had planned at the Society's inception.

The next fifteen years (1927 to 1942) were prosperous ones for Delta Omega both on the national level and at Alpha Chapter. The Society republished several classic works in the history of public health. These classics were then distributed to the membership free or sold at cost. During this time, Delta Omega continued to elect outstanding students, faculty, and honorary members into the Society. Finally, the Society began sponsoring informative lectures at the national meetings of the American Public Health Association.

The first of the classic republications that Delta Omega sponsored was William Budd's work Typhoid Fever-Its Nature, Mode of Spreading and Prevention. This important study, first published in 1873, had been sought in vain for many years for use in public health teaching.29 Delta Omega arranged for the republication of 800 standard copies and 35 deluxe editions in 1931.

The second classic re-issued was Snow on Cholera. This work, republished in 1936, was a reprint of two rare papers on cholera by John Snow, the pioneer epidemiologist, that appeared respectively in 1853 and 1855. These papers were republished together, along with a biographical memoir by B.W. Richardson, originally published in 1887. The new issue also included an introduction by Wade Hampton Frost, the noted Hopkins epidemiologist. Dr. Frost noted in the introduction that Snow's two studies were nearly perfect models of the proper analysis of the epidemiology of cholera. Delta Omega arranged for the printing of 1000 copies.30

The third classic republished was Peter Ludwig Panum's Observations During the Epidemic of Measles in the Faroe Islands in 1846. Edgar Hume once stated that this study, previously available only in the original Danish, was, "the basis for much of our present teaching regarding the study of measles."31 This re-issue was of the English translation by Ada Sommerville Hatcher. It also contained a Biographical Memoir by Julius Jacob Peterson, translated from the Danish by Joseph Dimont. Delta Omega issued 850 copies of this edition in 1940. The work also included an introduction by James Angus Doull, a charter member of the Society. This was the first time that this work was available in book form.

Between 1927 and 1942, the national Delta Omega Society inducted over 600 members. Six of these were new honorary members. The first person in this group of honorary members included Charles V. Chapin, Superintendent of Health at Providence, Rhode Island. Chapin was also the 1927 President of the American Public Health Association. In 1929 the group received into honorary membership Hugh S. Cummings, former Surgeon General. Cummings became the President of the American Public Health Association in 1931. Also in 1929, the Society elected Frederick F. Russell, former Director of the International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation. The final honoree that year was former United States President Herbert Hoover who received honorary membership for his work in child health. In 1930, the Society honored George W. McCoy, the Director of the National Institute of Health and in 1931 they inducted Professor Mazyck P. Ravenel from the University of Missouri.

In 1939, the National Society sponsored the first in a series of Delta Omega Lectures. Milton J. Rosenau gave the first lecture at the American Public Health Association national meeting held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the Hotel Fort Pitt. Rosenau, Professor of Preventive Medicine at Harvard, entitled his talk "New Lamps for Old."32

The second lecture was in Detroit in 1940 on the topic, "The Way of Health" by Dr. Henry Frieze Vaughan, the Dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan.33

In 1941, and subsequent years, the national lectures were curtailed due to the war. They resumed again, however, within a few years.

The local chapters sponsored other lectures throughout this time period. The Beta Chapter at Harvard and the Gamma Chapter at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology held joint meetings yearly. At these functions, leaders in public health gave scholarly lectures. The speakers at these gatherings included Sir William Wilson Jameson, Victor George Heiser, Henry Frieze Vaughan, Edgar E. Hume, Frank Boudreau, Thomas Parren, Lewis Hackett, Eugene Bishop, Johannes Henrik Bauer, Lewis Wendall Hackett, Frank George Boudreau, George Clark Dunham, George King Strode and Kenneth Maxcy.

Alpha Chapter was also busy during this time. The group continued to elect new members and to hold dinner meetings to welcome them. They also used the occasion to have speakers on timely topics. Among the distinguished speakers at these gatherings were Sanford Larkey, the medical historian and librarian, who spoke on "The Life of Daniel Drake."34 Marcelino Pascua, former General Director of Public Health for Spain, lectured on "Politics and Public Health."35 William Henry Howell spoke on "The Founding and Early Development of The Johns Hopkins University."36 Henry Sigerist gave a talk on his relationship with Dr. Nikolai Alexandovin Semashko, First Commissioner of Public Health in the Soviet Union.37 Other speakers were C-E.A. Winslow of Yale and Huntington Williams from the Baltimore City Health Department. The first public lecture sponsored by the Alpha Chapter was on March 1, 1938. This was in conjunction with a dinner at The Johns Hopkins Club for the purpose of inducting Thomas Parren Jr. into honorary membership into the Society. Parren Jr., Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service, spoke at the School before an audience of about 350. His topic was "A Forward Look at National Health."38

The Alpha Chapter Presidents in this time period were the following: Persis Putnam from 1926 to 1927, Lowell Reed from 1927 to 1928, Allen W. Freeman from 1928 to 1929, Janet Clark from 1929 to 1930, W. W. Cort from 1930 to 1931, Samuel Reed Damon from 1931 to 1932, Roscoe Hyde from 1932 to 1933, Lowell Reed again from 1933 to 1934, Harry Mustard from 1934 to 1935, Justin M. Andrews from 1935 to 1936, Miriam Bailey from 1936 to 1937, John J. Phair from 1937 to 1938, Kenneth Maxcy from 1938 to 1939, Allen Freeman from 1939 to 1940, Thomas Turner from 1940 to 1941, W. W. Cort again from 1941 to 1942 and Kenneth Maxcy in 1942. In 1942, the Alpha Chapter suspended operations.

The outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 took its toll on Delta Omega both on the national level and within the individual chapters. Understandably, the activities of an honorary society may have seemed inappropriate during this time. In any event, a decline in Delta Omega's activities from 1939 to 1941 can be discerned and all activities were suspended from 1942 to 1944 because of the war.

Yet the stress of the war was not the only reason for Delta Omega's decline during this period and this was particularly true at Alpha Chapter. As early as 1935, the faculty and students at The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health were raising serious questions about Delta Omega. There was disagreement about whether or not an honorary society was an appropriate organization at the School of Hygiene and Public Health. The charge arose that Delta Omega was arbitrarily choosing a small percentage of the students for an honor, while excluding many others. This was said to be eroding student morale. Other problems arose because there were usually only a few active members in the Alpha Chapter. This was due to the fact that most of the students, particularly the C.P.H. and M.P.H. students, were only in residence for one year. The problem with this was that Delta Omega only offered membership, for all practical purposes, after a year of residence. The result was that the active control of the Society became vested in the faculty membership. Finally, Delta Omega was in direct competition with other activities on the campus of The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health which were sponsored by the faculty. Two of these activities were the meetings of the Society of Hygiene and the DeLamar Lectures.39

The Alpha Chapter members were aware of these problems. Many of their own members had put forth the same issues before. Other members of the chapter, however, felt obligated to respond to the charge of elitism. They pointed out that only a small portion of the outstanding eligible students should be elected if the Society was to be considered, as its constitution indicated, an honorary society. As to the issue of arbitrary selection, Alpha Chapter, to its credit, put forth an enormous amount of analysis and effort throughout this period into making the election process as fair as possible. In addition to this, the National Council amended the constitution and by-laws, a number of times throughout the Society's history, in direct response to eligibility and selection issues. Despite all of this, Alpha Chapter appointed a committee in April 1941 to study the issue of becoming an inactive chapter.

Allen Freeman, a member of the committee, summarized the situation in the committee's report. The annual election process, apparently, failed to select all students likely to go on to distinguished careers in public health. The brief stay of students in the school, the limited contact between faculty and students, and the impossibility of any numerical system of grading, made it difficult to select members from the large group of students registered each year. Freeman's committee believed that an injustice had been done in the past when certain students who were equal to the group selected were not chosen. The committee felt that under these circumstances the existence of Delta Omega in the School resulted in setting up, without any good basis, a division between students elected and those not elected.40

News of Alpha Chapter's problems spread quickly and by October 1941 the issue had become national in scope. The National Council met in Atlantic City to discuss the problem. Another major issue brought up at this meeting concerned the differing methods of electing members nationwide. Although membership selection was up to the local chapters, each of them should have followed national guidelines on the matter. The differences in the make-up of the student bodies of the different schools, however, and the varying means of interpretation of eligibility resulted in dividing the schools. At the annual meetings of the Society, rather serious differences of opinion appeared and ill feeling developed. This was a direct blow to one of the primary objects of the Society as originally planned -- to form a link between institutions of public health in this country.41

The group also discussed the basic issue of continuing the Society if Alpha chapter disbanded.42 Those present at the meeting felt that Alpha Chapter, instead of disbanding, should probably become "inactive" as a temporary measure. A few months later, in March 1942, The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health Committee on Applications and Curriculum made the same recommendation. Based on the problem of poor student morale, they suggested that Alpha Chapter not elect any new members that year. This suggestion was also approved by the School's Advisory Board. The Alpha Chapter approved the moratorium and became inactive.43

Kenneth Maxcy, former Alpha Chapter president, explained the major criticism of the method of selecting new members into the Society. "It was undesirable because of its bad effect on the un-elected persons, both as to their personal feelings, professional status and resulting attitude toward the school. It was brought out that the remarkable and very desirable spirit of unity created by the School as a whole and especially by the activities each year of the Ubiquiteers Society was seriously jeopardized by Delta Omega elections."44

With the war effort in full gear and with Alpha Chapter in an inactive status, Delta Omega essentially ceased to have any meaningful existence. Several attempts were made in 1944 to reactivate the Society with only small success reported. The Beta and Delta chapters elected members that year and a Delta Omega lecturer, Raymond Fosdick, President of the Rockefeller Foundation, was scheduled to deliver a lecture at the October 1944 meeting of the American Public Health Association. A group of Delta Omega members also met in October but they did not feel justified in attempting to formulate any policy for the future of the Society. This was due chiefly to the fact of Alpha Chapter's inactivity.45

Alpha Chapter would not return to Delta Omega until 1978, thirty-six years later. Like an orphaned child, Delta Omega struggled to come into its own during this period. From 1944 to 1948 the national Delta Omega office and the local chapters remained idle. In 1948, however, a special review of the Society, at the request of C-E.A. Winslow, former national president, took place. A Committee on Reorganization formed. In 1949, it recommended the continuation of the Society with the objective of encouraging excellence in scholarship. The chapters at Harvard, Michigan and California reactivated in this period, but Johns Hopkins, Yale and MIT did not.46 It was becoming apparent that it would take time to rebuild the Society.

In 1950, at Tulane University, a new chapter, the Eta chapter, joined Delta Omega. In 1953 the Theta Chapter at the University of North Carolina received a charter.47 The next chapter was not admitted to the Society until 1968. At that time, the University of California at Los Angeles received a charter as the Iota Chapter. Unfortunately, the very next year, the Beta Chapter at Harvard officially de-activated and in 1971, there were additional de-activations at The University of Michigan (Delta) and the University of California at Berkeley (Zeta). There was some good news, however, in 1971, as Loma Linda University received a new charter as the Kappa Chapter. By 1974, however, there were only three chapters in the Society actually active. These were the groups at Loma Linda, North Carolina and Tulane.48

The Delta Omega Lectures were given only sporadically during this period. The sources indicate that in 1951 the first Delta Omega lecture in eleven years was given. Brock Chisholm was the speaker. Apparently, there were no lectures given, however, from 1952 to 1954. In 1955 Franklin D. Murphy delivered the lecture and in 1957 it was given by Lowell Reed. In 1958, Leroy E. Burney, former Surgeon General, spoke and in 1959 M.G. Candau, former Director-General of the World Health Organization, presented the lecture.49

During the 1960s and 1970s the lectures were on a more regular basis. In 1960, George W. Beadle delivered the lecture and in 1961 it was given by Luther Terry. Fowler Hamilton gave the 1962 lecture followed by William E. Willard in 1963 and John Snyder in 1964. The next year, there was a change in format and the Society held a symposium instead of the usual lecture. The title of the symposium was "The State of the Art in Control of Communicable Diseases." In 1968 the lecture format returned. Entitled "Future Roles of Schools of Public Health," it was given jointly by George James and Reuel A. Stallones.50

In 1969, the Society offered another symposium on "New Trends in Public Health: Is Present-Day Training Relevant?" The 1970 Delta Omega Lecture was entitled "Where are We in the Race Against Starvation?" and given by Grace Goldsmith. The 1971 lecture was "The Future of the Society: A Report to the Membership" by Cynthia Stewart. In 1973, Lester Breslow delivered a lecture entitled, "Do HMO's Provide Health Maintenance?" The 1975 talk by Cicely Williams was on the topic, "The Function of Schools of Public Health." In 1976, Henrik Blum spoke on the subject of "When Do Research Findings and Public Evidence Require Action in Health Prevention and Promotion Activities?" William Herzog gave the 1977 lecture entitled "The Goal of Excellence, The Problem of Equity and the Stigma of Elitism."

Between 1942 and 1978, nine new honorary members were inducted into the Society. These included William Wilson Jameson, William Hallock Park, John Donaldson Porterfield, John C. Cutler, Anthony M.M. Payne, Abraham Horowitz, Ernest L. Stebbins, Walter Leroy Mallmann and Margaret Mead.

During this period, Delta Omega re-published two more public health classics. In 1958, the society republished George Baker's An Essay Concerning the Cause of the Endemial Colic of Devonshire. This edition contained an introduction by Huntington Williams. There were 500 copies printed of this careful study of lead poisoning in the cider-drinking population of Devonshire, England. In 1969, the Society sponsored the republication of Florence Nightingale's Notes on Nursing by Dover Publications. This was a paperback issue with a foreword by Margaret B. Dolan.

In 1978 at The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, Dean Donald A. Henderson, Dean Emeritus Ernest Stebbins, Professors Raymond Seltser, David Levy, Alan Ross and Anna Baetjer petitioned Delta Omega to reactivate the Alpha Chapter. The National Council immediately approved the request at their October 17, 1978 meeting.51 Ernest Stebbins became Alpha Chapter's first president since Kenneth Maxcy in 1942. Stebbins, who was the national secretary in 1942 when the Alpha Chapter became inactive, was also an Honorary Member of the Society. He was instrumental in bringing Alpha Chapter back into the fold.

Alpha Chapter had some catching-up to do. A number of alumni, who were distinguished individuals in the field of public health, never had the chance to join Delta Omega while they were students at The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Doctor Stebbins got special permission to elect these members into Alpha Chapter under a grandfather clause granted by the National Council. Along with the alumni members chosen, groups of students were elected and recognized at the commencement ceremonies.

The following year Alpha Chapter held a Delta Omega Student Research Day. At this function the Society recognized outstanding student papers based on original research. During the same year, they also sponsored a special induction ceremony and reunion dinner to induct newly elected members. Later, that year, they held a Delta Omega Lectureship. The speaker was former President of the American Public Health Association, June Jackson Christmas.52 These activities became regular events. In subsequent years speakers at Alpha Chapter events included Ernest Bueding, Haroutune K. Armenian and J. Michael McGinnis. Other highlights have been presentations of National Merit Awards to Hopkins faculty and alumni. These recipients have included Margaret Merrell, Myron Wegman and Donald A. Henderson. In 1982, the National Society elected former Associate Dean Edyth Schoenrich as the President of the National Society.

In a very short period of time, the Alpha group re-established itself as a vitalant chapter. Their success, however, has not come easily. It was due to the unfailing efforts of a number of dedicated individuals. These individuals include Ernest Stebbins, Donald A. Henderson, Anna Baetjer, John Hume, Allyn W. Kimball Jr., Keerti Shah, Arthur Bushel, Charlotte Ferencz, C. Alex Alexander, Lloyd Rozeboom, Morton Kramer, Cheryl Alexander, Richard Shieh, Sylvia Eggleston-Wehr, Edyth Schoenrich, Raymond Seltser, David Levy, Alan Ross, Marcia Pines and Elizabeth Fee to name only a few. Many of these individuals served as officers of the chapter, others contributed in other ways.

It may be a coincidence, but since the re-activation of the Alpha Chapter in 1978, Delta Omega as a national society seems infused with a new spirit. Since 1978, the Society has gained eight new local chapters. These included the Mu Chapter at the University of South Carolina and the Xi Chapter at the University of Oklahoma in 1978. The Lambda Chapter at the University of Illinois joined in 1980 and the Omicron Chapter at the University of Pittsburgh in 1982. The Pi Chapter, at the University of Minnesota, the Rho Chapter at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the Sigma Chapter at San Diego State University, were all approved in 1985. In 1987 the Tau Chapter at the University of South Florida joined.

In 1978, Delta Omega established the National Merit Awards program. Through this program, the Society selected individuals from schools of public health and honored them for the excellence of their work. Annually, each school of public health sent in nominations for awards in three categories, student, faculty member and alumnus. One award went for each category at the national meeting, with a Delta Omega Awards Committee choosing the winners. Recently, the Society altered the format and it is now a Delta Omega Award Winning Essay contest.

In 1979, the National Society amended its by-laws to allow 10% of the graduating students of participating schools to be elected to membership, instead of five percent. These students must be in the top 25% in class standing and demonstrate leadership abilities in addition to academic excellence. The Society amended the constitution again in 1981 to stabilize the leadership structure of the Society by creating an office of president-elect and by allowing all officers to serve for longer periods of time.

Delta Omega published one more work in the "classics in public health" series. They re-issued Juan Carlos Finlay's publication entitled The Mosquito Hypothetically Considered as an Agent in the Transmission of Yellow Fever Poisoning in 1989. This brings the total to six classics that Delta Omega has re-issued nationally. In 1991, to mark the 75th anniversary of The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, the Alpha Chapter and Doctor Elizabeth Fee published the "Welch-Rose Report: A Public Health Classic."

Delta Omega has had an impressive record of accomplishment despite encountering problems along the way. One of the problems the Society had in its early years at Alpha Chapter was that it did not receive much institutional support from the schools administration. As a result of this, the chapter only had a precarious existence. The members of the Society, except for a few faculty members, simply were not in any one place long enough for the local chapters to grow strong. The national leadership was not able to overcome this limitation, given the distance between them and the local members. The new leaders of Alpha Chapter seemed to have realized this in 1978. They worked to institutionalize the operations of the chapter, including the process of membership selection, event coordination and scheduling. The School did this by providing staff support on a continuing basis and by providing some small financial assistance. Much of the credit for this goes to former Dean Donald A. Henderson. This notion of providing institutional support to Delta Omega has contributed greatly to its success.

Another problem experienced by the Alpha Chapter was that, early on, there was no standard form of grading students as there is today. As a result, there always was a certain arbitrariness in the process of electing new students to the Society by a vote. The charter members tried to avoid this by having the faculty appoint the chapter members based on scholastic achievement. The Director of the school, Doctor Welch, however, would not agree to this. The whole problem was alleviated to some degree when the School began a uniform system of grading in September of 1976. Alpha Chapter re-activated two years later.

The lasting impression of Delta Omega's history is of the noble ideals of the Society and of the group of founders that began it. These were serious men and women who cared about the work they were doing. They were committed to the advancement of the profession they had chosen. Co-founder Edgar Hume understood this kind of commitment and, in his 1942 historical article, he quoted John Sundwall's 1939 Presidential Report to the Society. Sundwall wrote that, "membership in the Society of Delta Omega should not be regarded solely as an honor in recognition of past achievements in the field of Public Health. It should mean life-long obligations and devotion to the interests of public health in accordance with the ideals of Delta Omega. It should imply zest for erudition, as measured in terms of scholarship and research and constant effort to be in the vanguard of the modern public health movement as manifested by intelligent, considered, constructive action and effective leadership. Election to Delta Omega should be regarded as a consecration to quality work and to high standards in all those interests and activities making up modern public health."53

Charles A. Bailey received his medical degree from the Long Island College Hospital in 1899 and his Certificate in Public Health from The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1924. He worked first as a Field Director in Mexico and later became Senior State Director in Paris for the International Health Board of the Rockefeller Foundation.54

Milford E. Barnes was from Columbus Junction, Iowa. He received undergraduate degrees from Monmouth College and the University of Chicago and his medical degree from Rush Medical College. He was a graduate of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine at the University of London and he received his doctorate in Public Health from The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1925. For several years he served as the Director for Siam for the International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation. He also became the Director of the Ohio Training Station for Health Officers in the late 1920s. Finally, he held the appointment of Professor of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine at the University of Iowa.55

Yves M. Biraud received his undergraduate degree and a Masters of Science from the University of Poitiers, France. He received his medical degree from the University of Paris in 1923 and his Certificate in Public Health from The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1924. He became Head of the Statistical Department, Institut d'Hygiene Faculte de Medecine in Paris, France. He worked for the Epidemiological Intelligence Service of the League of Nations and later became the Director for Epidemiological Services and Health Statistics of the World Health Organization.56

James B. Black received his medical degree from Tulane University in 1918 and his Certificate in Public Health from The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1924. He also received his Doctorate in Public Health in 1929 from Hopkins. Doctor Black became the Director of Public Health in Lee County Mississippi.57

John W. Brown earned his medical degree from Vanderbilt University in 1910 and his Certificate in Public Health from The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1924. He was a City Health Officer in El Paso, Texas and later Director of Public Health in Houston.58

W. Thurber Fales was born in Milford Massachusetts. He received a bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1917 and a Certificate in Public Health from Harvard University in 1920. Fales was an Instructor of Epidemiology at The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health from 1920 to 1924. He received his Doctor of Science degree (Sc.D.) in Epidemiology from Hopkins in 1924. Fales was State Registrar and Director of the Bureau of Vital Statistics for the State Board of Health in Alabama from 1924 to 1934. He became the Director of the Bureau of Vital Statistics at the Baltimore City Health Department from 1934 to 1953.59

Martin Frobisher Jr. got his Bachelor's degree and his Doctorate in Science from Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. He was an Instructor of Bacteriology at the Hopkins' School of Medicine from 1925 to 1928. A Special Member of the International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation in Brazil from 1928 to 1932, Frobisher later (1932 to 1946) became Associate Professor of Bacteriology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. After that, he was the Chief Bacteriologist at the Center for Disease Control, a position he held for four years. From 1949 to 1952 he was an Associate Professor at Emory University. His last major appointment was as Professor of Bacteriology at the University of Georgia.60

Raymond D. Fear received his bachelor's degree from Hamilton College in 1913. He took his medical degree from The Johns Hopkins University in 1917 and his Doctorate in Public Health from The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1924. He was the Health Commissioner for Stamford, Connecticut.61

John F. Kendrick took his B.S. degree at the University of North Carolina in 1912 and his M.D. from the Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia in 1914. He graduated from The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1924. He worked for the International Health Board of the Rockefeller Foundation as a Field Director.62

Shelton S. King got his M.D.C.M. from McGill University in Montreal in 1905 and received his Doctorate in Public Health from The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1924. He worked for the International Health Board of the Rockefeller Foundation and for the Child Welfare Department in Westchester County, New York.63

Edward A. Lane received his bachelor's degree from Williams College in 1912 and his medical degree from Cornell University in 1916. He also earned degrees in public health from The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health (C.P.H. 1924) and Harvard (M.P.H. 1931). He worked for the State Department of Health in Nashville, Tennessee. Later, he was Director of the Division of Communicable Diseases in Westchester County, New York.64

Hilario Lara earned his medical degree in the Philippine Islands in 1919 and received a Doctorate in Public Health in 1924 from The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. He later became Dean of the Institute of Hygiene, University of the Philippines. He was also Professor of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine at the same institution.65

Hynek J. Pelc took his medical degree at the Medical Faculty in Prague. He earned his Doctorate in Public Health at The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1924. He was the Assistant Director of the Prague Institute of Hygiene in Czechoslovakia. He also held the position of Professor of Social Medicine at Charles University in Prague.66 Doctor Pelc was executed by the Nazis in 1942.

Persis Putnam received her B.A. degree at Smith College in 1911. She earned her Doctor of Science degree from The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1926. She was the main statistical analyst for the International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation.67

George H. Ramsey received his medical degree from Columbia University in 1917 and his Doctorate in Public Health from The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1926. He was Deputy Commissioner of the State Department of Health in Michigan from 1921 to 1926. Ramsey was also an Associate Professor of Epidemiology from 1926 to 1933 at Johns Hopkins. He later became Assistant Commissioner of Preventable Diseases in the New York State Health Department from 1933 to 1938. He was also Health Commissioner of Westchester County in New York 1938 to 1942.68

James Angus Doull, Delta Omega's first alumnus member was born in 1889. He earned a B.A. degree in 1911 and his M.D. in 1914. Taking his Diploma in Public Health from Cambridge University, England in 1919 and his Doctorate in Public Health from The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1921, Doull was Associate Professor of Epidemiology at Hopkins from 1924 to 1930. From 1930 to 1945 he was Professor of Hygiene and Public Health at Case Western Reserve University. He served in the Medical Corps of the United States Public Health Service, retiring as Medical Director in 1953.69 He was instrumental in developing the first scientific method for determining the effectiveness of chemotherapy in treating leprosy. He is also remembered for his work with the Leonard Wood Memorial Foundation for the Eradication of Leprosy.70

William Henry Welch, the first Delta Omega faculty member, was the first Director of The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. He was also the first Professor of Pathology at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and later became the first medical school Dean. Welch was also the first Professor of the History of Medicine and Director of the Institute of the History of Medicine at The Johns Hopkins University.

1. Constitution of Delta Omega. The Archive of The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Record Group 4. Series c. Box 1. Folder labeled Secretary-Treasurer's Records, Alpha Chapter Minutes 1924-1925. The Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives of The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions hereafter referred to as AMC Archives.
2. Encyclopedia of Associations, Edited by Deborah M. Burek, 27th edition, 4 vols., (Detroit: Gale Research, 1992), p.2439.
3. Minutes Delta Omega Executive Council November 18, 1975. The Delta Omega Archive. Accession number 92.61.AMC Box 2. Folder labeled Delta Omega Society, Executive Council 1976. AMC Archives.
4. Delta Omega Annual Meeting 1987 Brochure. The Delta Omega Archive. Accession number 92.61.AMC. Box 1. Folder labeled Delta Omega Chapters, Alpha Chapter Johns Hopkins. AMC Archives.
5. Presidential Remarks to New Members of Alpha Chapter of Delta Omega, May 27, 1935. Archive of The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Record Group 4. Series c. Box 1. Folder labeled Secretary-Treasurer's Records, Alpha Chapter Minutes 1935-1938. AMC Archives .
6. Elizabeth Fee and Roy M. Acheson, A History of Education in Public Health: Health That Mocks the Doctors' Rules (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991).
7. Delta Omega Dinner March 1, 1938: A one page manuscript by Allen Freeman on history of Delta Omega. Archive of The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Record Group 4. Series c. Box 1. Folder labeled Secretary-Treasurer's Reports, Alpha Chapter Minutes 1935-1938. AMC Archives.
8. Dictionary of American Medical Biography,Edited by Martin Kaufman, Stuart Galishoff and Todd L. Savitt, Two vols., (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984), Vol. 1, p.376.
9. Johns Hopkins University Alumni Record of Members of the Class of 1925. Biographical Files Collection. Biographical File of Claude Mitchell. AMC Archives.
10. Elizabeth Fee, Disease and Discovery: A History of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health 1916-1939 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987).
11. Edgar E. Hume. " The Delta Omega Society: A Brief Historical and Descriptive Sketch of the Honor Society in the Field of Public Health by One of its Founders", Banta' Greek Exchange (April, 1942) p.138.
12. Delta Omega, An Honorary Fraternity in Public Health by Persis Putnam. Archive of The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Record Group 4. Series c. Box 1. Folder labeled General Files October 1, 1939 to September 30, 1940. AMC Archives.
13. A. W. Freeman to Members of the Committee, dated 4/9/41, Enclosure entitled "To the Members of Alpha Chapter, Delta Omega Society. Archive of The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Record Group 4. Series c. Box 1. Folder labeled Correspondence 1940 to 1947. AMC Archives.
14. "The Delta Omega Society: A Brief Historical and Descriptive Sketch of the Honor Society..." p.138.
15. Minutes of the meetings of Delta Omega (Alpha Chapter) May 2, 1924. The Archive of The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Record Group 4. Series c. Box 1. Folder labeled Secretary-Treasurer's Records, Alpha Chapter Minutes 1924-1925. AMC Archives.
16. Presidential Remarks to New Members of Alpha Chapter of Delta Omega, May 27, 1935. Archive of The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Record Group 4. Series c. Box 1. Folder labeled Secretary-Treasurer's Records, Alpha Chapter Minutes 1935-1938. AMC Archives.
17. "The Delta Omega Society: A Brief Historical and Descriptive Sketch of the Honor Society..." p.138.
18. Delta Omega The Honorary Public Health Society: Organization, Constitution, By-Laws, List of Members, p.6.
19. Ibid., p.6.
20. Ibid., p.6.
21. Presidential Remarks to New Members of Alpha Chapter of Delta Omega, May 27, 1935. Archive of The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Record Group 4. Series c. Box 1. Folder labeled Secretary-Treasurer's Records, Alpha Chapter Minutes 1935-1938. AMC Archives.
22. Ibid.
23. Delta Omega, An Honorary Fraternity in Public Health by Persis Putnam. Archive of The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Record Group 4. Series c. Box 1. Folder labeled General Files October 1, 1939 to September 30, 1940. AMC Archives.
24. The author of the Delta Omega publication entitled Delta Omega: The Honorary Public Health Society, Organization, Constitution, By-Laws, List of Members, Fourth Edition, (1937), does not consider Winslow to be the first national president of the society. He lists Edgar Hume as the first president and the first national secretary to be Richard A. Bolt. The two of them must have been elected or chosen sometime prior to 1927 to serve in the 1926-27 academic year (see page 1 of this publication). I can find no primary source evidence, however, in the archives of the society that indicates when this took place. I assume that it is true, however, since Edgar Hume also published the same information in his 1942 article "The Delta Omega Society: A Brief Historical and Descriptive Sketch of the Honor Society..." See page 140 of Hume's article.
25. Dictionary of American Medical Biography, Vol.2, p.811-812.
26. American Men of Science, p.1793.
27. Minutes of the meetings of Delta Omega Society. October 19, 1927. Archive of The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Record Group 4. Series c. Box 1. Folder labeled Secretary-Treasurer's Records, Alpha Chapter Minutes 1924-1931. AMC Archives.
28. "The Delta Omega Society: A Brief Historical and Descriptive Sketch of the Honor Society...", p.138-139.
29. "The Delta Omega Society: A Brief Historical and Descriptive Sketch of the Honor Society...", p.139.
30. "The Delta Omega Society: A Brief Historical and Descriptive Sketch of the Honor Society...", p.140.
31. Ibid.
32. Program Delta Omega Society October 17-19, 1939. Archive of The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Record Group 4. Series c. Box 1. Folder labeled General Files October 1, 1939 to September 30, 1940. AMC Archives.
33. Program, Delta Omega Society October 8 to 10, 1940, Detroit, Michigan. Archive of The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Record Group 4. Series c. Box 1. Folder labeled Correspondence 1940 to 1947. AMC Archives.
34. Minutes of the meetings of Delta Omega Society (Alpha Chapter). May 28, 1936. Archive of The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Record Group 4. Series c. Box 1. Folder labeled Secretary-Treasurer's Reports, Alpha Chapter Minutes 1935-1938. AMC Archives.
35. Minutes of the Meeting of May 3, 1940. Archive of The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Record Group 4. Series c. Box 1. Folder labeled Secretary-Treasurer's Report, Alpha Chapter 1937-1946. AMC Archives.
36. Minutes of the meetings of Delta Omega Society (Alpha Chapter). May 26, 1937. Archive of The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Record Group 4. Series c. Box 1. Folder labeled Secretary-Treasurer's Reports, Alpha Chapter Minutes 1935-1938. AMC Archives.
37. Minutes of the Meeting of May 12, 1939. Archive of The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Record Group 4. Series c. Box 1. Folder labeled Secretary-Treasurer's Report, Alpha Chapter 1937-1946. AMC Archives.
38. Minutes of the meetings of Delta Omega Society (Alpha Chapter). March 1, 1938. Archive of The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Record Group 4. Series c. Box 1. Folder labeled Secretary-Treasurer's Reports, Alpha Chapter Minutes 1935-1938. AMC Archives.
39. Memorandum Prepared by the Secretary of the Alpha Chapter of Delta Omega for the Chapter Representative at the National Meeting Oct. 8, 1935 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Archive of The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Record Group 4. Series c. Box 1. Folder labeled Secretary-Treasurer's Reports, Alpha Chapter Minutes 1935-1938. AMC Archives.
40. A. W. Freeman to "Members of the Committee" dated 4/9/41, Enclosure entitled "To the Members of Alpha Chapter, Delta Omega Society. Archive of The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Record Group 4. Series c. Box 1. Folder labeled Correspondence 1940 to 1947. AMC Archives.
41. Ibid.
42. Minutes of the Meeting of Oct 10, 1941. Archive of The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Record Group 4. Series c. Box 1. Folder labeled Secretary-Treasurer's Report, Alpha Chapter 1937-1946. AMC Archives.
43. Minutes of the Meeting of March 12, 1941. Archive of The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Record Group 4. Series c. Box 1. Folder labeled Secretary-Treasurer's Report, Alpha Chapter 1937-1946. AMC Archives.
44. Minutes of the Meeting of October 31, 1946. Archive of The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Record Group 4. Series c. Box 1. Folder labeled Secretary-Treasurer's Report, Alpha Chapter 1937-1946. AMC Archives.
45. Delta Omega. Special Meeting of the National Council, called by President Wilton L. Halverson. Archive of The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Record Group 4. Series c. Box 1. Folder labeled Secretary-Treasurer's records, Alpha Chapter 1947. AMC Archives
46. Memorandum to J.C.S. Paterson, Donald C. Smith, Richard Daggy, Adelia Beeuwkas, William Griffiths, Athol J. Patterson, and Rebecca Broach from William T. Herzog, February 21, 1966, p.2. Archive of The Delta Omega Society, National Chapter. Accession number 92.61.AMC Box 2. Folder labeled Review of Delta Omega Activities until 1966. AMC Archives.
47. Ibid.
48. Delta Omega Society, National Council Minutes 1974. The Archive of The Delta Omega Society, National Chapter. Accession number 92.61.AMC Box 6. Folder labeled National Council Minutes. AMC Archives.
49. Memorandum to J.C.S. Paterson, Donald C. Smith, Richard Daggy, Adelia Beeuwkas, William Griffiths, Athol J. Patterson, and Rebecca Broach from William T. Herzog, February 21, 1966, p.6. Archive of The Delta Omega Society, National Chapter. Accession number 92.61.AMC Box 2. Folder labeled Review of Delta Omega Activities until 1966. AMC Archives.
50. The list of Delta Omega Lectures from 1968 to 1985 can be found in two places. The first source for most of the lectures from 1968 to 1985, and for the events from 1986 to 1992, are in the preliminary programs of the annual meetings of the American Public Health Association. These programs normally appear in the August issues of the American Journal of Public Health. The second source for many of the lecture titles are the Delta Omega Society, National Council Minutes 1968 to 1985 in the Archive of The Delta Omega Society, National Chapter. Accession number 92.61.AMC Box 6. Folder labeled National Council Minutes. AMC Archives.
51. Delta Omega Society, National Council Minutes 1978 in the Archive of The Delta Omega Society, National Chapter. Accession number 92.61.AMC Box 6. Folder labeled National Council Minutes. AMC Archives.
52. The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene nd. Public Health, " Delta Omega Lectureship," In Brief (October 1980): p.6.
53. "The Delta Omega Society: A Brief Historical and Descriptive Sketch of the Honor Society...", p.141.
54. The Johns Hopkins University. Johns Hopkins Half Century Directory 1876 to 1926. (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University, 1926), p. 14.
55. American Men of Science, p.93.
56. Johns Hopkins University Half Century Directory 1876-1926, p.29.
57. The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Directory of Graduates 1919 - 1962, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1962), p.3.
58. The Johns Hopkins University Half Century Directory 1876-1926, p.45.
59. American Men of Science, p.542.
60. American Men of Science, p 609.
61. The Johns Hopkins University Half Century Directory 1876-1926, p. 110.
62. Johns Hopkins University Half Century Directory 1876-1926, p.192.
63. Johns Hopkins University Half Century Directory 1876-1926. p.196.
64. Johns Hopkins University Half Century Directory 1876-1926, p.205.
65. American Men of Science, p. 1026.
66. Delta Omega Society, Delta Omega: The Honorary Public Health Society Organization, Constitution, By-Laws, List of Members, Fourth Edition, (1937), p.21.
67. American Men of Science, p.1429.
68. American Men of Science, p.468.
69. American Men of Science, p.468.
70. "James Angus Doull," Journal of the American Medical Association 183 (July 6, 1963): p.65.