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Benjamin
Piatt Runkle, born in West Liberty, Ohio,
was 18 years old at the time of the
founding of Sigma Chi . It was Runkle who
pulled off his DKE badge and threw it on
the table in the important dinner meeting
in February, 1855, putting into forceful
words the thoughts of Bell, Caldwell ,
Cooper, Jordan and Scobey. It was this
type and quality of spirit which he
instilled in Sigma Chi throughout his
life.
Runkle joined with Lockwood in designing
the White Cross. They had determined to
come up with something different from the
shield and diamond type common at the
time. In later years, Runkle
explained,“It's selection grew from
an admiration of its meaning.” He
was inspired with the story of the
Emperor Constantine and his vision on the
night before the battle for Rome. He
believed Constantine was a heroic
character, and he convinced the other
Founders to pattern Sigma Chi symbolism
after the vision of Constantine.
Runkle’s spirit and idealism in
college once led to his temporary
suspension from the University for
fighting in chapel with a member of Beta
Theta Pi who had publicly sneered at his
badge.
He had the most noteworthy military
career of any of the Founders. At the
outbreak of Civil War he volunteered with
a militia company and was a Colonel by
the end of the war. He was seriously
wounded in the battle of Shiloh and left
for dead on the battlefield, leading his
former Deke rival Whitelaw Reid to pen a
glowing tribute to Runkle in a dispatch
to his newspaper. The reports of
Runkle’s battlefield death turned
out to be erroneous and ironically,
Runkle outlived Reid.
After a long military career, where he
was eventually promoted to Major General,
Runkle was ordained as an Episcopal
Priest. He was the only one of the
Founders to become Grand Consul, serving
as the Seventh Grand Consul from
1895-1897.
He spent the last years of his life in
Ohio, where he died on the
Fraternity’s 61st birthday in 1916.
He is buried with full military honors in
Arlington National Cemetery, Va., where
in 1923 Sigma Chi erected the first of
the Founders’ memorial monuments at
his grave.
Related links:
James Parks Caldwell
Isaac M. Jordan
Franklin Howard
Scobey
Thomas Cowan Bell
Daniel William
Cooper
William Lewis
Lockwood
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