Alpha Delta Sigma () began as a men's honorary fraternity in the field of advertising.While curiously not profiled ''itself'' in Baird's, Fraternity is mentioned as a merger partner of Gamma Alpha Chi in the 19th and 20th edition of the book. It was founded on at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded ...

, which from the beginning noted its affiliation with the "Associated Advertising Clubs of the World", an earlier name for the

American Advertising Federation The American Advertising Federation (AAF), headquartered in Washington, D.C., is the oldest national advertising trade association A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry ...

. The Fraternity appears to have fairly quickly repositioned itself as a men's national ''professional'' advertising fraternity, with some chapters providing housing for members. As such it joined the

Professional Fraternity Association The Professional Fraternity Association (PFA) is an American association of national, collegiate, professional fraternities and sororities that was formed in . Since PFA groups are discipline-specific, members join while pursuing graduate (law, m ...

in 1928 as a charter member. Alpha Delta Sigma merged with

Gamma Alpha Chi Gamma Alpha Chi () was a professional advertising fraternity for women founded in 1920. History Gamma Alpha Chi was formed at the University of Missouri on February 9, 1920.. Its founding members were: On , the fraternity merged with Alpha Del ...

, which had also been formed at

as a female counterpart to Alpha Delta Sigma. The merger occurred on . In 1964, Alpha Delta Sigma had 50 undergraduate and 11 professional chapters and Gamma Alpha Chi had 37 chapters of which 22 were active. The merged fraternity was headquartered, briefly, at

Texas Tech University Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sy ...

. In 1973, the combined fraternity, still named and often just "ADS", itself finally merged into the

. Today the AAF continues to use the name Alpha Delta Sigma for its collegiate programs and as a subsidiary national honor society for the field.

Symbols and traditions

*The colors of the Fraternity were red and white.According to the 1921 University of Missouri ''Salvitar yearbook'', p.300. *The pin was a shield, with the image of the Western Hemisphere at bottom, surmounted by the three Greek letters of its name. *Chapters were named for prominent members of the field, prominent alumni or members of a host school's faculty.For example, the original Missouri chapter was named after John W. Jewell
according to the 1921 ''Salvitar yearbook''
p.300. The later-formed Minnesota chapter was named the ''Dean E. E. Nicholson chapter'' of ΑΔΣ, according to th
''Minnesota Gopher'' Yearbook, 1928
p.356.

References

{{Professional Fraternities Honor societies Student organizations established in 1913 1913 establishments in Missouri Former members of Professional Fraternity Association