• Search CSULB
• Help 
• Index 
• Directory 
• Maps 

• Home Page of the
  Rho Chapter of California
• History of Phi Beta Kappa
• Categories of Membership
• Selection Criteria
• Officers
• Members
  • Charter, Alumni, and
    Honorary Members
  • Members-in-Course
  • Resident Members
• Visiting Scholars Program
• Phi Beta Kappa Society
  Home Page
• Contact Us

Phi Beta Kappa

ΦΒΚ — Φιλοσοφiα Βiου Κυβερνiτης (philosophia biou kybernetes)
"Love of learning is the guide of life."

 

Founded in 1776, Phi Beta Kappa is the oldest and most prestigious academic honor society in the United States.  Phi Beta Kappa celebrates excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, serving as the nation's leading advocate for freedom of inquiry and expression, disciplinary rigor, breadth of intellectual perspective, the cultivation of skills of deliberation and ethical reflection, the pursuit of wisdom, and the application of the fruits of scholarship and research in practical life.  The Phi Beta Kappa Society sponsors activities to advance these studies — the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences — in higher education and in society at large. 

The Rho Chapter of California was established at California State University, Long Beach in 1977. CSULB is one of 22 colleges and universities in California -- and only one of three in the California State University system -- to be granted a Phi Beta Kappa chapter.  Our inclusion in this selective group of institutions is a testament to our university's excellence in the liberal arts and sciences. 

Only the most outstanding arts and sciences students at America’s leading colleges and universities are invited to join the Society. In fact, there are only 276 Phi Beta Kappa chapters across the United States.  In the nearly 225 year of its existence, those chapters have selectively inducted approximately 500,000 members. 

• Seventeen U.S. Presidents were Phi Beta Kappa members, including Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Harry S. Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, and John Quincy Adams.
  
  
• Nearly all of the current and recent Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court are members of Phi Beta Kappa, including Chief Justices John G. Roberts, William H. Rehnquist, and Earl Warren.  Current and recent ΦBK Associate Justices include Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, Samuel Alito, Stephen Bryer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David H. Souter, Anthony Kennedy, John Paul Stevens, Lewis Franklin Powell, Harry A. Blackmun, Byron R. White, Potter Stewart, and William O. Douglas.

• Some of Phi Beta Kappa’s other famous members include:

 

Jeff Bezos Founder of Amazon.com	Glenn Close Emmy and Tony Award Winning Actress
Francis Ford Coppola Vintner; Oscar Winning Director, Producer, and Screenwriter	Michael Crichton Physician; Author; and Emmy Winning Director, Screenwriter, and Producer
Henry Louis Gates Scholar; Cultural and Literary Critic	Tom Brokaw Author and Broadcast Journalist
Eli Whitney Early-American Businessman and Inventor	Ralph Waldo Emerson Essayist, Philosopher, and Poet
Eileen Collins Space Shuttle Commander	Kris Kristofferson Musician, Composer, Lyricist, and Actor
John Marshall Early-American Statesman and Formative Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court	Nathaniel Hawthorne Novelist and Short Story Writer
Betty Friedan Author, Social Activist, and Co-Founder of the National Organization for Women	Benazir Bhutto Social Activist and Former Prime Minister of Pakistan
Oliver Wendell Holmes Physician; Poet; Legal Scholar and Historian; and Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court	Jonas Salk Medical Researcher who Developed the First Polio Vaccine
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Educator and Poet	Pearl S. Buck Author, Humanitarian, and Nobel Laureate for Literature
Leonard Bernstein Tony and Grammy Winning Composer and Conductor; Civil Rights Activist	Angela Davis Scholar and Political Activist
W.E.B. DuBois Scholar and Civil Rights Activist	Helen Keller Author and Social Activist
Gloria Steinem Author; Social Activist; Co-Founder and Publisher of Ms. Magazine	Nadine Strossen Constitutional Law Scholar and Civil Liberties Attorney/Activist
Alexander Graham Bell Scientist and Inventor	Booker T. Washington Educator and Civil Rights Activist
Stephen Sondheim Oscar, Tony, Grammy, and Pulitzer Prize Winning Composer and Lyricist	Nelson Rockefeller Businessman, Philanthropist, U.S. Senator, and 41st U.S. Vice-President
Henry Kissinger Political Scientist, Nobel Peace Prize Winner, 56th U.S. Secretary of State	Peyton Manning National Football League Quarterback
Hugh Downs Emmy Award-Winning Broadcast Journalist and Producer	John Dewey Philosopher and Education Reformer
Susan Sontag Photographer, Playwright, and National Book Award-Winning Author	Rivers Cuomo Singer and Guitarist for "Weezer "
John Updike Novelist, Poet, and Critic of Art and Literature	Condoleezza Rice Educator and 66th U.S. Secretary of State
Annie Proulx National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize Winning Author	Carson Kressley Fashion Expert and Critic
Julie Taymor Emmy and Tony Award Winning Director of Theater, Opera, and Film; Tony Award Winning Costume Designer	Richard Posner Legal Scholar and Educator; Judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; "Father" of the Law and Economic Movement

 

For additional information on Phi Beta Kappa, visit www.pbk.org.

• Feedback