Allan P. Kirby, Zeta Psi, Class of 1915, dedicating Kirby House in memory of his mother, Lafayette College, June 8, 1950
Jefferson W. Kirby '84
- Chair of the Lafayette College Board of Trustees since July 2026, the only Kirby to hold the role
- Trustee 1996 to 2012 and again since 2018; chaired the board's Investment Committee for six years
- George Wharton Pepper Prize winner and Student Government president, 1983-84
- Managing member of Broadfield Capital and former chair of Alleghany Corp.; MBA, Duke University's Fuqua School of Business
- Two of his children are Lafayette graduates: Jane '19 and Zete Brother Sam '22
You have been walking past that name since the day you got here. Kirby Hall of Civil Rights. Kirby Sports Center. Kirby Field House. Kirby House. The Kirby Art Study Center. The renovations to Fisher, where you watch the Lehigh game. One family sponsored all of it, across five generations, and the man at the center was a brother of this chapter.
"Lafayette College has been a meaningful part of my life." — Jeff Kirby '84
1861–1940
THE FOUNDER
Fred Morgan Kirby
Started as a store clerk at fifteen and saved five hundred dollars over eight years. Opened a five-and-dime in Wilkes-Barre in 1884 with Charles Sumner Woolworth, bought him out the next year, and by 1911 owned ninety-six stores. In 1912 the chain merged into F. W. Woolworth and he became its vice president. He never attended Lafayette. He endowed the Professorship of Civil Rights here in 1921 and built Kirby Hall of Civil Rights in 1931.
Class of 1915
THE ZETE
Allan Price Kirby
His son. Entered Lafayette in the fall of 1911 with the class of 1915 and joined Zeta Psi, and went on to run Alleghany Corporation. He gave the rest of his life back to this College: president of the Alumni Association twice, from 1929 to 1931; elected a lifetime trustee in 1937; chairman of the fundraising committees from 1945 to 1956. He gave the Kirby Room in Van Wickle Hall, founded the Marquis Foundation in 1952, and funded a residence hall in 1950 in memory of his mother. The Field House was dedicated to him in 1973 and was largely funded by the F. M. Kirby Foundation.
Class of 1942
THE ZETE AND ATHLETE
Fred Morgan Kirby II
Allan's son. Three varsity letters (football, wrestling, swimming) and a place on the 1940 team that went nine and zero and beat Army nineteen to nothing. Lafayette beat Lehigh all four of his years. He succeeded his father at Alleghany in 1967 and ran it as Chairman or President for the next forty-three years, sitting on more than forty boards. He also served as F. M. Kirby Foundation President for forty-three years until 2010, and the foundation largely funded the expansion of the Field House into the Allan P. Kirby Sports Center and major improvements to Fisher Field.
Classes of 1981 and 1984)
THE NEXT GENERATION
S. Dillard Kirby '81 and Jefferson W. Kirby '84
Fred's sons. S. Dillard Kirby '81, F. M. Kirby Foundation Executive Director or President for more than 25 years. Jefferson W. Kirby '84, Pepper Prize winner, F. M. Kirby Foundation Director and Lafayette College Trustee for more than two decades, including as Board Chair from 2026. The Jeff '84 and Karen '87 Kirby Family Strength and Wellness Wing stands at Metzger Fields.
A further generation has well begun, including Jefferson's son, Zete Brother Samuel S. Kirby '22. The family and its foundation continue to give significantly.
THE BUCK FAMILY
J. Mahlon Buck '21 was part of the Smith, Kline & French family, today's GSK. His son William C. "Bill" Buck '50 (1928–2023) followed him to Lafayette and to this house. Bill was known on campus for playing drums and saxophone into the early hours at the Zete house, and in 1988 he received Zeta Psi's Distinguished Service Award, the fraternity's highest honor. In 1981 the brothers became partners in the Philadelphia Phillies, and Bill rode in the 2008 World Series parade. On campus, the family name is on William C. Buck Hall, the Buck Courts, and the Buck music endowments and concert series. J. Mahlon Buck's portrait hangs in our dining room.
William C. "Bill" Buck '50 (1928–2023)
The Colton Family: Colton Chapel
Few buildings on College Hill carry a family's story like Colton Chapel. When Zete John Milton Colton died, Mary R. Colton gave Lafayette a chapel in his memory, and she had firm views about how it should look. Carrère and Hastings, the architects of the New York Public Library, proposed a Beaux-Arts rotunda in Indiana limestone under a four-stage steeple. Mrs. Colton wanted a traditional rectangular church, and she agreed to the round design only after the College promised her an "old-fashioned Presbyterian type pulpit." The chapel opened in 1916 and became the center of Lafayette's spiritual life. On Easter Sunday 1965, fire gutted the interior and destroyed its Tiffany windows, the year after John Milton Colton III graduated from Lafayette. The limestone shell held, the College rebuilt inside it, and Colton descendants have kept coming to Lafayette ever since, as recently as the Class of 2021. Like the Kirbys and the Bucks, the Coltons are a Zete family whose name is part of the College itself.
Photos: Wikimedia Commons
JOE MADDON '76
Managed the Chicago Cubs to the 2016 World Series title, ending a 108-year drought. Two-time American League Manager of the Year with Tampa Bay. His "Try Not To Suck" is painted on the wall downstairs.
VINEYARD VINES
The Murray family built Vineyard Vines into a national brand, and several Tau brothers, including Ian Murray '97, have been part of it.
STEVE PRYOR '71
President of ExxonMobil Chemical Company and vice chair of the Lafayette College Board of Trustees.
RICK LETTIERI '69
An early voice predicting the rise of e-discovery in legal practice.
DICK YUENGLING '65
Owner of D.G. Yuengling & Son in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, America's oldest brewery.
THE ARCHITECTS
The house itself was designed in 1909 by two Zetes, William Michler and James Barnes Baker, both Lafayette civil engineering graduates.
IAN MURRAY '97
co-founded the company with his brother Shep in 1998. Two more Tau brothers help run it: President Mike Gaumer and General Counsel Justin Zamparelli.