At the core of the Alpha Tau Omega lies a root of sincere Christian principles. The organization was founded at the Virginia Military Institute in 1865 by Otis Alan Glazebrook. He was a young Civil War Veteran who aimed to create a fraternity that fostered a spirit that would rekindle true peace through brotherly love, and he did just that. As a deeply religious individual, Glazebrook believed that younger men would be increasingly motivated to forgive and unite with the Northern counterparts when motivated by Christian, brotherly love.

The name came spontaneously. Derived from Glazebrook’s observations of the ancient insignia of the church and its catacombs: the Tau cross subjoined by the Alpha and the Omega.

“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.”