On the cold night of January 10, 1899, students of Illinois Wesleyan University, in the small Midwestern town of Bloomington, had just returned from the Christmas holidays when Joseph L. McNutt and Clarence A. Mayer at 504 East Locust Street to discuss the organization of a new society on campus. Joined immediately by Owen I. Roy Atkinson, these five students created the first set of regulations for the Knights of Classic Lore, a society whose avowed purpose was "to aid college men in mental, moral, and social development." It was not long before the name "Knights of Classic Lore" was eventually abandoned and the Greek letters Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) were selected. On December 29, 1964 Kappa-Beta would become the 218th chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon and the first social Fraternity at Pan American University (PAU).
