Delta Phi Alpha

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National History

The national honor society of Delta Phi Alpha was founded in May of 1929 at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina.  The process of creating the society began in February of 1928 when 21 Wofford students formed a German Club they named the Deutscher Verein under the supervision of Dr. James A. "Graveyard" Chiles. 

Early in the year of 1929, members of the Deutscher Verein started contacting German clubs on other campuses, which led to the national formation of Delta Phi Alpha.  Wofford College became the Alpha chapter of the Society, and Dr. Chiles became its president, a title he held until he retired.

Currently, Delta Phi Alpha has approximately 240 chapters and over 31,000 living members in the United States.

The following article about Dr. James A. Chiles is taken from the Wofford College website.

 

Wofford College - Through the Years


1929-Delta Phi Alpha
Third Generation

“Graveyard” and Delta Phi Alpha national German honor society

Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens - "Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain."

Dr. James ChilesSchiller wrote it first, but the late Dr. James A. Chiles often smiled and quoted this adage to describe his task as a teacher of confused Wofford College freshmen. Actually, he was anything but helpless when he taught German. He passionately loved the complexities and cadence of the language, and most of his students came to admire it just as he did, even if they struggled with the grammar and spoke the language with a more than a trace of a Southern accent.

Wofford was indeed fortunate to obtain Dr. Chiles' services in the fall of 1914. A Missouri native, he came to the Wofford faculty from the University of Wisconsin, having earned his Ph.D. at the University of Leipsig. Ginn & Company had already published his first textbook, which he immediately began using in his introductory classes.

Settling in at Wofford, Dr. Chiles was so demanding, serious and scholarly that his first students called him "Graveyard." (The nickname stuck, although Chiles mellowed into a very popular teacher in his later years.) He continued to write texts for use in college introductory and intermediate German. One of his books, German Composition and Conversation, was adopted as an official textbook for both British and American armed forces during World War II. With the help of his German-speaking wife and a colleague at Smith College, he continued to produce revised editions, and students in many English-speaking countries used them into the 1960s.
By the middle of the 1927-28 academic year, Dr. Childs had become one of Wofford's most popular professors, and 21 students asked him to sponsor a club they called Deutscher Verein. The next year, the late John Olin Eidson ’29 and members of the Wofford group began contacting German clubs on other campuses. In May 1929, the Delta Phi Alpha national honorary German society was formed. Dr. Chiles was made its president, a position he occupied for the rest of his active career, and Wofford claimed the distinction of the home of alpha chapter.

Dr. Chiles died suddenly in 1951 at the age of 74, four years after he had retired as chairman of the department of foreign languages.

 

The information on this page was obtained from the Wofford College website.