Arm of Honor

Forward by Matt Jones:

In the spring of 2022, the Arm of Honor Fraternity Alumni Chapter reached out to the Oral History Program to learn about how they could document the history of the fraternity. The Arm of Honor, founded by Latin professor Benjamin D’Ooge in 1895 as a speech and language club, was, at the time of its dissociation from EMU 2015, the oldest locally-founded fraternity in the United States. Numerous building names on campus—Rynearson, Olds, Jones, and more—were derived from men who found their way to Michigan State Normal College and subsequently to Arm of Honor. It is an illustrious past for a fraternity, and we want to make sure it survives even if the fraternity itself does not. 

We did not want this project to simply be a list of fraternity hijinx, pranks, and beer brawls. We were interested in the central values of the Arms, how those values changed over time, and how the relationships that these ‘bonded brothers’ continue to enjoy amongst themselves in the present day. These values—brotherhood, loyalty, unconditional love—are, in some cases, even more evident in the lives of older Arms than they were when those Arms were students on campus. 

The “local” aspect of the fraternity, a source of a great deal of pride to the brothers, also plays prominently into the history and character of the fraternity. Local students were given priority over out-of-towners during rush, and the Arm of Honor quickly came to represent the male youth culture of Ypsilanti.

Twenty Arms were interviewed for this project, some in person at Halle Library, and some over the telephone or on Zoom. Questions, while researched for each narrator individually, center around themes of coming of age, finding your community, and creating identity. I tried to document as many nicknames as I could, and found out that many Arms never knew their brothers’ real names until this project. To Stubby, Hawk, Smoothie, Gremlin, Boots, and all you other Hammerheads, thank you for allowing the EMU OHP into your memories.