Kappa Pi Kappa (), also known as Pi Kap and formerly known as Kappa Kappa Kappa (colloquially as Tri-Kap) and briefly as Kappa Chi Kappa, is a local men's fraternity at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The fraternity was founded in 1842 and is the second-oldest fraternity at Dartmouth College.

History

Kappa Pi Kappa was founded on July 13, 1842, by Harrison Carroll Hobart and two of his closest companions, Stephen Gordon Nash, and John Dudley Philbrick, all Class of 1842. The society was based on the principles of democracy, loyalty to Dartmouth, and equality of opportunity. Originally a literary and debate society, Pi Kap officially became a social society in 1905 and has remained so ever since, making it the oldest extant local fraternity in the country.

Due to the similarity of the society's Greek initials with the Latin/English initials of the unaffiliated Ku Klux Klan, Kappa Kappa Kappa changed its name to Kappa Chi Kappa () for a period from April 1992 to October 1995, at which point the name changed back to Kappa Kappa Kappa.

Following a period of consensus-building among the brotherhood's alumni, on May 18, 2022, the fraternity again changed its name, this time to Kappa Pi Kappa ().

Symbols

Kappa Pi Kappa's motto is '. Its color is Dartmouth Green. Its nickname is Pi Kap.right|thumb|Chapter house, 1 Webster Avenue

Chapter house

The fraternity was the first student society at Dartmouth with its own meeting place, a building called The Hall, which was originally where the Hopkins Center for the Arts is today. Opened on July 28, 1860, the Hall served as Pi-Kap's home until the society moved into the Parker House in 1894. Parker House was where the modern-day Silsby Hall is. In 1923, the society moved into 1 Webster Avenue in Hanover, where it resides to this day.

Notable members

Graduating class in parentheses

  • Walter Sydney Adams, (1898) American astronomer, director Mount Wilson Observatory
  • Alex M. Azar (1988), Secretary of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
  • Henry Moore Baker (1863), member of the New Hampshire House, New Hampshire Senate, and the United States House of Representatives
  • John M. Gile (1887), member Executive Council of New Hampshire 1911-1913
  • Andrew Marshall, football player and Assistant Attorney General of Massachusetts
  • John Henry Patterson (1867), industrialist and founder of National Cash Register, now NCR Corporation
  • Nitya Pibulsonggram (1962), Foreign Minister of Thailand and former Thai ambassador to the United States
  • Ambrose A. Ranney (1844), U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts
  • David Rosenbaum (1963), New York Times journalist
  • Bob Smith (1902), co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous
  • Myron E. Witham (1904), football player, coach of football and baseball, and mathematics professor