Robinson, Edith Stoner

When Edith Stoner (Robinson) took office as Grand President, 1908-1910, Council members were no longer young women in or just out of college. Having made a fine impression at the 1904 Convention when Theta Chapter, Missouri, was hostess, Edith attended the 1906 Convention as a delegate of the Kansas City Alumnae Association and was elected Grand Registrar. Shortly before the 1908 Convention, she was appointed Grand Secretary; the previous two secretaries had resigned. At the 1908 Convention, she was unanimously elected Grand President, 1908-1910. During her second year, Edith took a leave of absence from teaching high school chemistry to “make a business” of being Grand President, during which time she visited many chapters. In her 1910 address, she said problems with co-education had to be faced, with chapter house rules, scholarship and Panhellenic arrangements. A system had been set up in which a Kappa not doing well scholastically would be contacted by a committee member who wrote a “sympathetic letter of inquiry.” She felt poor work was not due to inability or lack of interest but to outside matters; she implored undergraduates not to let their social lives take precedence over academic achievement. She felt Panhellenic cooperation could solve some of the problems of rushing and pledging. At the Seventh Inter-Sorority Conference, held immediately after her election, Edith was chosen secretary. As one of a committee of three, she helped draw up a letter to alumna groups of the 12 women’s fraternities informing them of ways they could be of real service. Having written 1,500 letters as Fraternity President, and more as secretary of the Panhellenic, Edith lobbied for the Grand President and Grand Secretary to have their own secretaries. She suggested the annual tax be raised from $3 to $5 so a secretary could be hired at up to $30 a month. Twelve years after her term, Edith, who had two Kappa sisters, married and had a daughter, who became a member of Pi Deuteron Chapter, UC Berkeley.