Hopkins soon was joined by two classmates and close friends who were also equally unhappy with the hazing situation. They were Greenfield Quarles, from Arkansas, a Kentuckian by birth, and James McIlvaine Riley from St. Louis, Missouri. These three men began a movement to completely abolish the hazing system at VMI. Their efforts climaxed on a moonlit October night in 1868, presumably following Bible study at the superintendent’s home, when the three met at a limestone outcropping on the edge of the VMI parade ground. Hopkins, Quarles and Riley clasped hands on the Bible and gave their solemn pledge to form a brotherhood of a new society they called the Legion of Honor.

The vows taken by these three Founders bound them together to oppose hazing at VMI and encouraged the application of the Principle of Honor in all their relationships. That the founders should adopt Honor as a guiding principle was a natural move since a rigid code of Honor was already an established tradition of the VMI Corps of Cadets. The Honor system at VMI required each cadet to conform to the duty imposed by his conscience that each act be governed by a high sense of Honor.

The new Fraternity needed an identifying symbol, and Founder Hopkins designed a Badge for the members to wear on their uniforms. That Badge was patterned after the White Cross of the French Legion of Honor, which was worn on the uniform of a favorite professor of Hopkins. The Badge was first introduced in the spring of 1869. Keeping with the Founders’ decree, the Badge has remained unchanged ever since, except in size and the raised center. Even today, the collegiate Commander’s Badge, and the Badge of the Grand Officers remain identical to Hopkins’ original Badge. When the first slate of officers was chosen, Riley, the most popular, was elected Commander and Hopkins the Lieutenant Commander. Typically, Hopkins, the epitome of humbleness, was delighted that “Mac” Riley was chosen leader. It gave Hopkins “the doer,” thinker, planner, along with Quarles who had similar talent, more of an opportunity to concentrate on solidifying Chapter I before he graduated in 1870. By the 1869 commencement, the group had grown to fifty-one members.

Having active chapters in each section of the country, Sigma Nu was now in every sense a national fraternity. Expansion proceeded at an orderly rate, and by 1915 there was a need for centrally located administrative offices with full-time officers. Heretofore, the various Sigma Nu officers maintained their files and records at their own homes or places of business. Fire had once destroyed many of the Fraternity’s records, and there was a lack of coordination in general.
Following the Denver Grand Chapter in 1915, the High Council approved the establishment of the central administrative system first proposed by Regent Francis V. Keesling (Beta Chi, Stanford). The plan, adapted by Walter J. Sears, converted the High Council into a board of directors elected by the Grand Chapter; all executive and administrative duties previously exercised by members of the High Council and committees were lodged in a single official – the General Secretary (now Executive Director) – appointed by the High Council and subordinate to its direction.

Indianapolis was selected as the location of the Fraternity’s headquarters, and on November 1, 1915, the General Offices were opened there temporarily in the Lemcke Annex before moving into the main building. Bixby Willis (Lambda, Washington and Lee), a past Grand Treasurer of Sigma Nu, was employed as the first General Secretary. In 1926, the central office was moved to the Illinois Building in Indianapolis.

Indianapolis served as the Fraternity’s headquarters for forty-two years, during which time fifty-five new chapters were added to the roster of the Legion of Honor.

Even before Sigma Nu’s first central office was organized in Indianapolis, some dreamed of the day when the Fraternity would have an appropriate shrine at Sigma Nu’s birthplace, but it took nearly four decades before the first step was taken. That step was the appointment of a Headquarters Committee in 1954. It compared rent with ownership and ultimately recommended the latter in a college town where a Sigma Nu chapter thrived. Inevitably Sigma Nu history and tradition pointed to Lexington.

Regent James W. Bradley (Epsilon Epsilon, Oklahoma State) and his High Council took the historic step in 1957, purchasing without mortgage or lien a singularly appropriate property, a large home ideally suited for conversion and development. The land, conveniently located on the highest hill within the corporate limits of Lexington, Virginia, and on a seven-and-one-half-acre tract overlooking VMI and Washington and Lee University, enjoys the Blue Ridge Mountains as a backdrop to the east and the Allegheny Mountains to the west. The land was originally owned by the son of General Francis H. Smith, the first superintendent of VMI, who inspired Hopkins in the founding of Sigma Nu; the house, built by the grandson of Superintendent Smith, came to Sigma Nu directly from the Smith family. Milton L. Grigg, a renowned Virginia architect and participant in the famous Williamsburg Restoration, was contracted to restore the building. The Headquarters facility was occupied in 1958 and officially dedicated June 9, 1960.

Well into the Fraternity’s second century, Sigma Nu continued its dramatic growth. Today, the number of initiates is nearly 200,000; the number of chapters approaching 250. Many of the Fraternity’s chapters have initiated more than a 1,000 members, with a large number topping 1,500 and several exceeding 2,000. Among the many significant achievements during the past decade has been the addition of adjacent properties in Lexington, Virginia, known as the Ethical Leadership Center, owned by the Sigma Nu Educational Foundation, Inc. Particularly noteworthy is Sigma Nu’s inter fraternity leadership in risk reduction and risk management matters followed by the introduction of its unique LEAD Program, one of the most meaningful educational initiatives ever undertaken by a college fraternity. In addition the transfer of ownership of the Fraternity’s Headquarters property, known as the Sigma Nu Headquarters Shrine, to the Sigma Nu Educational Foundation, Inc. has enabled alumni gifts to assist in its restoration and preservation, so as to relieve the burden of upkeep on future generations of collegians.

Finally, in celebration of the Fraternity’s 125th anniversary, the Foundation undertook construction of a third wing to the Headquarters Shrine as well as a Pathway of Honor of engraved bricks, which provides an opportunity to celebrate the life of each Sigma Nu. The Pathway of Honor will meander throughout the Lexington properties. A special “Pilgrimage to the Rock” was one of the memorable highlights of the 56th Grand Chapter held in Washington, DC, in August 1994.

For a century and a quarter Sigma Nu chapters have shaped the man of integrity. Their challenge for the future is to focus efforts and energies anew to the fuller realization of the great mission set by our Founders – to build Men of Honor, ethical leaders for society based upon the concept of the Brotherhood of Man under the Fatherhood of God. Indeed, Sigma Nu may be on the threshold of the era of its greatest achievement as it enters the 21st Century.