IWU News

Illinois Wesleyan University Student Makes Unexpected Discovery

November 8, 2004

BLOOMINGTON, Ill.—Ashley Locke, a senior English literature and music major from Glen Ellyn, Ill., recently made an unexpected discovery concerning an Illinois Wesleyan past alum. Historian for Illinois Wesleyan’s chapter of Sigma Tau Delta (STD), a national English honor society, Locke was researching STD history when she uncovered the fact that the founder of the English society, Judson Q. Owen, was a 1913 graduate of the University.

Locke, who also works as a student assistant in the Tate and Merwin Archives of The Ames Library, immediately looked up the 1913 Wesleyana, the University yearbook, to learn more. Owen, an English literature major from Hume, Ill., was also a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, YMCA, and the Wesleyana yearbook staff. After graduating from Illinois Wesleyan, Owen taught at Michigan State University at East Lansing as an instructor of composition. He received his M.A. degree from that institution in 1920.

In 1922, Owen took a position at Dakota Wesleyan College, where he served as head of the English Department. That winter, he founded the English Club to promote the study of literature and creative writing. By May of 1924, Owen had turned the club into Sigma Tau Delta, which became an English society with active chapters at colleges and universities throughout the country.

In addition to serving 45 years as STD’s executive secretary, Owen held positions at Wayne State College in Nebraska and Drury College in Springfield, Missouri. Owen died in 1969. According to the STD Web site, “Millions of students and their chapter sponsors have found their minds and lives enlivened and bettered by the honor society he founded and nurtured for almost half a century.”