Ida Fuller

Who was Ida Fuller?

Ida Mabel Fuller Pierce was one of the five founding members of Sigma Kappa sorority.

Fuller served as one of the co-founders of the Sigma Kappa sorority, along with Mary Caffrey Low Carver, Elizabeth Gorham Hoag, Frances Elliott Mann Hall and Louise Helen Coburn. The group founded the sorority at Colby College in Waterville, Maine on November 9, 1874. They were the only female students at Colby at that time. Colby College became the first New England college to admit women along with men.

Being the only women in the college, the five of them found themselves together frequently. In 1873-74, the five young women decided to form a literary and social society. They were instructed by the college administration that they would need to present a constitution and bylaws with a petition requesting permission to form Sigma Kappa Sorority. They began work during that year and on November 9, 1874, the five young women received a letter from the faculty approving their petition. They sought for and received permission to form a sorority with the intent for the organization to become national.

Fuller was 20 years old when she decided to attend Colby College. Her brother Blin, upset that she would dare try to attend a men's school, refused to attend Colby if she went. Although Fuller men had always attended Colby, Blin went to Bowdoin College instead. At the college, Fuller found a natural set of friends with the only other women attending the school. She was said to contribute to the forming of Sigma Kappa with her practical ideas and nature.