The Alpha Phi Zeta began its tenure at the Capstone under the name of “The Iris Club”. This organization was merely a gentleman’s club made up of eleven men, nine of whom later became our founding fathers.
The Eleven members of the Iris Club were: Orville Menees Coston - Alpha Phi 1 from Birmingham, AL, Ralph Austin Smith - Alpha Phi from Mobile, AL, Julian Berringer Foster - Alpha Phi 3 from Tuscaloosa, AL, Garret Hagan Alpha Phi 4 Birmingham, AL, Graves William Styles - Alpha Phi 5 from Gurley, AL, Willis C Royal - Alpha Phi 6 Montgomery, AL, Sydney William Smyer - Alpha Phi 7 from Birmingham, AL, Robert Arnold Hamrick – Alpha Phi 8 from Birmingham, AL, William Henry Beatty – Alpha Phi 9 from Birmingham, AL, William Vance Weir from Gadsden, AL, and Dudley Fitts from Birmingham, AL (The later two were not part of the Founding Fathers).
On March 10, 1917 the Iris Club of the University of Alabama petitioned for a Chapter as a Zeta of Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity.
We received our charter on April 19, 1917. We were installed as Alpha-Phi Zeta on May 4, 1917, by the Omega Zeta at Auburn University, and we became the 33rd chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha since 1909. Unlike many Zetas across the country, the Alpha-Phi Zeta has weathered wars, economical depressions, and low membership, but we have never shut our doors or been re-colonized in our 90 plus years at the capstone.
