| Benjamin Piatt Runkle "Courageous in Spirit and Idealism" September 3, 1836 - June 28, 1916 |
| Born: September 3, 1836 A.B. , Miami University: 1857 A.M, Miami: 1860 L.H.D. , Miami: 1899 admitted to the bar: 1859 attorney: 1859-61 Captain, Major and Lieutenant Colonel, 13th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, U.S. Army; and Colonel , 45th Ohio Volunteer Infant ry, U.S. Army retired from active service dele-g ate to first and 22nd Grand Chapters orator for 22nd Gra n d Chapter Grand Consul :1895 - 97 professor, military science and tactics, Miami: 1899 - 1901; University of Maine: 1902 - 3; Peeks kill Military Academy: 1903-4 Died : June 28, 1916 Buried: Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va . |
| Unquestionably, the most colorful member of the Seven Founders was Benjamin Piatt Runkle.
Appropriately enough for a colorful personality, he was ruddy of complexion throughout his long life. He was tall, had piercing eyes, an erect, soldierly bearing, and during his later years his beard and hair seemed to be whiter than any of those around him. He was a leader in the rebellion that took place in the Kappa Chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon in the fall of 1854. He and Scobey were regarded as the leading spirits of the "recalcitrants" from the very moment the disagreement had arisen in the chapter over the election of poet in the Erodelphian Literary Society. It was this type of courage which he instilled in the annals of the Fraternity throughout his life. 'As he performed this dramatic act he said, or probably shouted, "I didn't join this Fraternity to be anybody's tool." He put into words the thoughts of Bell, Caldwell, Cooper, Jordan, and Scobey. It was Runkle who, with Lockwood, designed The White Cross. Up to that time (the spring of 1855), fraternity badges consisted almost solely of the shield and diamond type. Runkle and Lockwood determined to come up with something different and the cross evolved, after much careful consideration. Many years later, when questioned as to just what led them to design The White Cross, Runkle said, "Its selection grew from admiration of its meaning." This terse statement sums up much revealing and interesting testimony as to the innermost workings of the minds of those two boys, Runkle and Lockwood, a century ago. Runkle was at his best as a military man. In early 1861 he was practicing law at Urbana, Ohio, near West Liberty, where he was born September 3, 1836. Immediately upon hearing the news that Fort Sumter had been fired upon on April 12, he volunteered for service in the Union Army and with him every member of the Douglas Guards, the militia company of which he was captain. Runkle had by far the most distinguished military career of any of the Founders. In fact, he had the most distinguished military career of any member of the Fraternity in the War Between the States. By November 1865, he had been breveted a major general. As every initiate knows, Runkle was terribly wounded in the battle of Shiloh and left for dead on the field of battle. It was a face wound from which he never fully recovered, although he lived for more than half a century after the war. It is a matter of no little interest to see how Whitelaw Reid treated this incident in his dispatch to The Cincinnati Gazette He had opposed Runkle brilliantly and strenuously only a few years before in the parting of the ways in Delta Kappa Epsilon. In the meantime he had become a famous war correspondent. In his account of the battle of Shiloh he described that part of the field where Runkle had fallen. He paid a glowing tribute to the memory, as he supposed, of his former college rival with these words: "He died a hero; green grow the grass above his grave." Ironically, Runkle outlived Reid and, in 1913, upon Reid's death contributed a warm appreciation of him to the Quarterly of Delta Kappa Epsilon. Runkle, like so many other military men, was never entirely at home in civilian life. He would have preferred to stay in the service for the rest of his life. He did stay in for some time after the war but was retired in a comparatively short time because of "wounds received in the line of duty." He was the only one of the Founders to serve as Grand Consul. He held that office from 1895 to 1897 and was the Seventh Grand Consul. He gave the office his best attention and had a very creditable, progressive, and energetic term. The last eight years of his life were spent in Hillsboro, Ohio. It was perhaps characteristic of the colorful career of this rugged individual that he died on the Fraternity's birthday, June 28, 1916, exactly 61 years after the Founding took place at Oxford. The body of the Founder was taken to Washington, D.C., and burial was made in Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, final resting place of so many other of the nation's heroes. Full military honors were paid General Runkle as well as the last rites of Sigma Chi. In 1923 a Founders' Memorial Monument was dedicated at his grave, the first of seven monuments to be erected. |
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