Pi Gamma Mu
International Honor Society
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North Carolina's Lambda Chapter
The North Carolina Lambda Chapter located at Western Carolina University has
been a leader in the nation among Pi Gamma Mu chapters. The North Carolina
Lambda Chapter has been awarded several honorable awards for extensive campus
membership and distinguished campus impact including the:
Roll of Distinction
Roll of Merit
Joseph B. James Chapters Incentive Award
Dr. Gordon Mercer currently serves as an advisor to the North Carolina Lambda
Chapter
Pi Gamma Mu-North Carolina Lambda Chapter Distinguished Officers include:
Crystal Belch President
(Graduate)
Michael Moore President
(Undergraduate)
Dustin Wilson Vice
President (Graduate)
Pi Gamma Mu
History
Pi Gamma Mu was founded in 1924 by Dean Leroy Allen from Southwestern College in
Kansas and Dean William A. Hamilton of the College of William and Mary in
Virginia. Seventeen founding chapters were organized simultaneously.
SOCIAL SCIENCE was established as a quarterly journal in 1925. With the
beginning of Volume 57 in 1982, the name of the journal was changed to
INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE REVIEW. Publication of the PI GAMMA MU NEWSLETTER
began in 1978.
Rear Admiral Richard Byrd served for a time as Honorary National President of Pi
Gamma Mu, in 1928 carrying the Society's flag to the Antarctic. Two presidents
of the Philippines were members of the Society; one U. S. president joined as a
student--Lyndon B. Johnson.
The Society was incorporated under the name "The National Social Science Honor
Society, Pi Gamma Mu, Inc." on April 5, 1929 as a non-profit corporation in
Colorado. To acknowledge its chapters outside the U. S., the Board of Trustees
took action in 1980 to change the name of the Society to "Pi Gamma Mu,
International Honor Society in Social Science."