ATO Creed

To bind men together in a brotherhood based upon eternal and immutabel principles, with a bond as strong as right itself and as lasting as humanity: to know no North, no South, no East, no West but to know man as man, to teach that true men the world over should stand togeterh and contend for supremacy of good over evil; to teach, not politics, but morals; to foster, not partisanship, but the recognition of true merit wherever found; to have no narrower limits within which to work together for the elevation of man than the outlines of the world. These were the thoughts and hopes uppermost in the minds of the founders of the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity.

--Otis Alan Glazebrook, 1880

Fraternity History

Nationally, Alpha Tau Omega was founded in Richmond Virginia, on September 11, 1865, and was the first Fraternity founded after the Civil War. Our founding  fathers saw the bitterness and hatred that followed  the war and knew that true peace would not come  from the force of law, but rather from within the hearts of men who were willing to work to rekindle a spirit of brotherhood. This sense of brotherhood is still evident today throughout ATO chapters across the  nation.

Alpha Tau Omega began as an idea in the mind of a  young Civil War veteran who wanted peace and reconciliation. His name was Otis Allan Glazebrook. His  people were defeated, many of their cities burned,  much of their countryside ravaged. But Glazebrook,  who had helped bury the dead of both sides, believed  in a better future. He saw the bitterness and hatred  that followed the silencing of the guns and knew that  a t rue peace would come not from the force of law,  but rather from within the hearts of men who are  willing to work to rekindle a spirit of brotherly love.

The name came spontaneously. As a boy and youth in St. Paul's and St. Mark's, Glazebrook had seen the ancient insignia of the church, first discovered in the  ancient catacombs, depicted upon their walls, ceilings  or other ecclesiastical objects, the Tau Cross subjoined by Alpha and Omega. "Alpha" and "Omega"  signify to the Christian absolute plentitude or  perfection. "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and  the end, the first and the last." Joined with the cross,  the whole signifies that Christ is all in all, the  beginning  and end of salvation.

On September 11, 1865, Glazebrook invited two close friends to his home  at 114 East Clay Street in Richmond, Virginia. There, in the rear parlor, he read them the Constitution he had written and invited them to sign. As they did, Alpha Tau Omega was born. It was the first fraternity founded after the Civil War, and the first sign of Greek life in the old Confederacy.

Glazebrook had chosen his co-founders well. Alfred Marshall, a friend of Glazebrook's from boyhood, was first captain of the VMI Cadet Corps and a popular  individual. He was the spirited man of the trio, the man of action, the one most likely to attract new members. Erskine Mayo Ross, who ultimately became a federal  judge, gave a sense of order to the meeting. He could  curb the sometimes reckless energies of Marshall  without dampening the charge of Glazebrook's ideas.  The three formed a well-balanced group.

This famous civil war painting portrays the daring charge of the VMI cadets at the Battle of New Market. Sixteen of the cadets depicted would go on to become ATO's including Cadet Corporal Glazebrook, Cadet Corporal Marshall, and Cadet Sergeant Ross

For more history of ATO, visit the national web site at http://www.ato.org.