Kappa Eta Kappa

Kappa Eta Kappa () is an American co-educational professional fraternity for students of electrical engineering, computer engineering, and allied technical fields. Founded in 1923 at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, it is a member of the Professional Fraternity Association (PFA). Contemporary newspaper reports described the fraternity as a professional organization for electrical engineers, with organizational work beginning in fall 1922 and formal organization completed on February 10, 1923. It was initially established for male students majoring in electrical engineering. The Gamma chapter was installed at the University of Kansas in February 1924 and was described by a contemporary report as the first departmental engineering fraternity installed there.

The Alpha chapter purchased the Tony Smit home at 302 South Linn Street in Iowa City in October 1923, with George C. Johnson of Manning, Iowa, serving as chapter president. The chapter incorporated in May 1924, filing articles with the county recorder; the reported officers were George C. Johnson as president, Harlan W. Bowen as vice president and treasurer, and Orville H. Pullen as secretary. The incorporation report stated that the chapter had no capital stock and that the members sought unity as a fraternal body rather than incorporation for the purpose of building a house. A later report identified the house as 631 Walnut Street SE, stated that it was purchased for $14,500, and described it as containing eleven large rooms and a sleeping porch; the same report listed the chapter's then-current quarters at 1807 Fourth Street SE.

In 1928, the fraternity was a founding member of the Professional Interfraternity Conference (PIC); however, it dropped its membership before PIC merged with the Professional Panhellenic Association to form the Professional Fraternity Association (PFA) in 1977. Kappa Eta Kappa was later again listed as a member of the PFA. Its national conventions resumed in 1947, and its slow revival culminated in the establishment of Theta at the Milwaukee School of Engineering in 1957.

Co-education and renewed growth (1980–present)

In 1981, Kappa Eta Kappa voted to admit women.</blockquote>

Symbols

Kappa Eta Kappa's coat of arms is a quarterly shield in purple and gold and bears the instruments of the electrical profession. The fraternity's colors are purple and gold. Delta chapter at the University of Wisconsin–Madison describes chapter activities including studying together, professional talks, industry networking, and social events.

Delta chapter has also participated in STEM outreach. In 2024, the chapter took part in the University of Wisconsin–Madison Engineering EXPO, where members presented an interactive Kappa Eta Kappa-themed version of Flappy Bird coded in Python for middle- and high-school students.

Alumni of Beta chapter established the Kappa Eta Kappa Scholarship Fund at the University of Minnesota in 1985. The scholarship supports active Beta members and is awarded based on chapter activities, extracurricular activities, good citizenship, and academic achievement. The Beta Alumni Association later organized the Kappa Eta Kappa Beta Chapter Scholarship Foundation to manage scholarship funds for active Beta members. The foundation is listed by ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a tax-exemption ruling date of May 2021.

National Executive Council conventions

97th annual convention – February 24, 2024 – hosted by Beta chapter (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota).
98th annual convention – February 22, 2025 – hosted by Delta chapter (Madison, Wisconsin).
Next convention (announced) – February 21, 2026 – hosted by Iota chapter (St. Cloud, Minnesota).

Governance

The fraternity is governed by a national executive council that is elected at an annual convention. The executive council consists of a president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer.

|Beta

| – 1968;<br>1970

|University of Minnesota

|Minneapolis, Minnesota

|Active

|Gamma

| – after 1969

|University of Kansas

|Lawrence, Kansas

|Inactive

|Delta

|University of Wisconsin–Madison

|Madison, Wisconsin

|Active

|Zeta

| – after 1941

|Georgia Tech

|Atlanta, Georgia

|Inactive

|Eta

| – after 1941

|Kansas State University

|Manhattan, Kansas

|Inactive

|Theta

| – after 2000

|Milwaukee School of Engineering

|Milwaukee, Wisconsin

|Inactive

|

Colonies and expansion

Kappa – University of Chicago (Chicago, Illinois); prospective chapter or expansion effort. In January 2026, the Delta Alumni Association reported that the National Executive Council had been working with an engineering club at the University of Chicago toward forming Kappa chapter, with Delta chapter assisting the effort and planning initiation events for prospective members. A March 2026 University of Chicago article separately described Kappa Eta Kappa at UChicago as a student-led, STEM-focused pre-professional fraternity founded by Tim Yu.

Alumni associations

{| class="wikitable"

! Association !! Location

!Status!!

| KHK Beta Alumni Association || Minneapolis, Minnesota

|Active||

Paul Barford (Delta 2013, honorary) – Carl de Boor Professor of Computer Sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Madison; ACM Fellow and IEEE Fellow
John H. Booske (Delta 1993, honorary) – University of Wisconsin–Madison Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor
Vannevar Bush (Epsilon) – electrical engineer, inventor, and science administrator; president of the Carnegie Institution for Science and builder of the differential analyzer
C. B. Feldman (Beta) – Bell Telephone Laboratories transmission researcher and Institute of Radio Engineers fellow
Thomas W. Fitzgerald (Zeta 1941, honorary) – head of the School of Electrical Engineering at the Georgia School of Technology
Leslie E. Flory (Gamma 1930) – RCA research engineer; Institute of Radio Engineers fellow; as a student at the University of Kansas, he ran the Kappa Eta Kappa fraternity house to help pay his way through engineering school
Alfred T. Goshaw (Delta) – James B. Duke Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Physics at Duke University; American Physical Society fellow
Richard A. Greiner (Delta 1963) – emeritus professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison; Kappa Eta Kappa faculty advisor and president of the Kappa Eta Kappa National Executive Council
Susan Hagness (Delta 2000, honorary) – chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
Oscar B. Hanson (Zeta 1928) – NBC director of engineering; 1940 Institute of Radio Engineers Medal of Honor
John Oghalai (Delta) – chair of the USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery and Leon J. Tiber and David S. Alpert Chair in Medicine at the University of Southern California
Edwin H. Perkins (Epsilon 1929) – chief of the Systems Branch of the United States Army Signal Corps
Kewal K. Saluja (Delta, honorary) – professor emeritus of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison; IEEE Fellow
George Sutton (Zeta 1936) – U.S. Army Air Forces B-24 navigator; killed in England on February 3, 1944.

References

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