Acacia Fraternity is a social fraternity founded in 1904 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was founded by undergraduate Freemasons and was originally open only to men who were Masons, but dispensed with the Masonic prerequisite in 1933. The following list includes notable initiated and honorary members of Acacia.
Academia Stratton D. Brooks, Missouri 1925 - President of the University of Oklahoma (1912) and University of Missouri (1923) Walter Elmer Ekblaw, Illinois 1907 - college professor who served as geologist, ornithologist and botanist on the Crocker Land Expedition Raymond A. Pearson, Iowa State 1924 - President of Iowa State University Roscoe Pound, Nebraska 1905, Harvard 1913 - educator; Bushnell Hall at KSU dedicated in his name L. Dennis Smith, Indiana 1956 - President Emeritus, University of Nebraska Claude R. Sowle, Northwestern 1947 - past President of Ohio University Francis W. Shepardson - professor of history at the University of Chicago and director of the Illinois Department of Registration and Education Albert B. Storms, Iowa State 1909 - President of Iowa State University Walter Williams, Missouri 1909 - President of University of Missouri; founder of Missouri School of Journalism
Business Dennis Chookaszian, Northwestern 1962 - chairman and CEO of CNA Insurance Companies; professor at University of Chicago Booth School of Business David A. Evans, Rensselaer 1979 - inventor of high capacity tantalum capacitor; President of Evans Capacitor Company Frank S. Land, Missouri - founder of the Order of DeMolay Lewis H. Wentz, Oklahoma 1927 - oil businessman
Entertainment Scott Houston, Indiana 1980 - public television personality; public speaker; known as "Piano Guy" Nic Pizzolatto, LSU - creator and writer of the TV series True Detective
Literature
Philip Bobbitt, Texas 1965 - author and constitutional theorist Arthur H. Carhart, Iowa State 1916 - early conservationist and writer Jack Collom, Colorado A&M 1952 - poet, writer, teacher Edward Everett Dale, Harvard 1917 - historian, writer Clifton Hillegass, Nebraska 1938 - creator of CliffsNotes
Politics John Moore Allison, Nebraska 1927 - diplomat; Ambassador to Japan; Assistant Secretary of State under Truman Hiram Bingham III, Yale 1915 - US Senator, Governor of Connecticut, and explorer who discovered Machu Picchu William G. Bray, Indiana 1927 - US Congressman, Indiana William Jennings Bryan, Nebraska 1908 - Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson; orator Homer E. Capehart, Indiana 1959 - US Senator, Indiana Arthur Capper, Kansas State 1916 - Governor and US Senator, Kansas Frank Carlson, Kansas State 1948 - US Congressman; US Senator; Governor of Kansas Wilburn Cartwright, Oklahoma 1920 - US Congressman, Oklahoma Francis H. Case, Northwestern 1923 - US Congressman, South Dakota Ovie Clark Fisher, Texas 1926 - US Congressman, Texas; writer J. Edward Hutchinson, Michigan 1933 - US Congressman, Michigan James 'Jim' Kolbe, Northwestern 1961 - US House Representative, Arizona Harry G. Leslie, Purdue 1907 - Governor of Indiana Paul V. McNutt, Harvard 1914 - Governor of Indiana Steve Scalise, LSU 1986 - Current US Congressman, Louisiana Conrad G. Selvig, Minnesota 1906 - US Congressman, Minnesota David Sholtz, Yale 1914 - Governor of Florida William Howard Taft, Yale 1913 - 27th President of the United States of America Homer Thornberry, Texas 1930 - US Congressman, Texas Jim Watson, Carleton University 1998 - Member of Provincial Parliament (Minister), Mayor of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (1997–2000) (2010–2022) Ralph Yarborough, Texas 1926 - US Senator, Texas
Science Lloyd Berkner, Minnesota 1926 - physicist Karl M. Dallenbach, Cornell 1913 - psychologist William F. Durand, Stanford 1904 - NASA pioneer Harold E. Edgerton, Nebraska 1924 - pioneer in the electronic flash, pertaining to photography Jack Kilby, Illinois 1942 - Nobel Prize laureate in physics; inventor of the integrated circuit George J. Marrett, Iowa State 1957 - test pilot for USAF and Hughes Aircraft Company; author of four non-fiction books on aviation Wallace E. Pratt, Kansas 1907- pioneer in the petroleum field Laurence H. Snyder, Oklahoma 1949 - pioneer in genetics James E. Webb, North Carolina 1927 - high-ranking NASA official in the 1960s Alexander Wetmore, Kansas 1912 - ornithologist
Sports Dee Andros, Oklahoma 1948 - head football coach and athletic director, Oregon State Jack van Bebber, Oklahoma State 1931 - Olympic wrestler Chester L. Brewer, Missouri 1911 - past head football coach at both Missouri and Michigan State; past athletic director of Missouri; Homecoming originator Gene Conley, Washington State 1949 - professional baseball player and basketball player Ron Fairly, USC 1957 - professional baseball player and broadcaster Richard ‘Dick’ Farley, Indiana 1951 - star IU basketball player for the 1953 National Championship team; NBA player Calvin Griffith, George Washington 1935 - owner of Washington Senators / Minnesota Twins John L. Griffith, Illinois 1921 - past commissioner of what is now the Big Ten Conference Thomas "Tommy" James, Ohio State 1942 - professional football player, Cleveland Browns Pat Jones, Oklahoma State - Head Football Coach at Oklahoma State; Assistant Coach of Miami Dolphins Roger Nelson, Oklahoma 1951 - Canadian Football Hall of Fame Gary Patterson, Kansas State 1980 - current Head Football Coach at TCU David 'Wes' Santee, Kansas 1952 - Olympic runner H. L. 'Tom' Sebring, Kansas State 1920 - judge for the Nuremberg Trials; head football coach at the University of Florida Arthur L. Valpey, Michigan 1936 - head football coach of Harvard and UConn Edwin Weir, Nebraska 1925 - Hall of Fame college football player
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