Howard Bell Arbuckle, one of the first initiates of Iota Chapter, was born near Lewisburg, West Virginia on October 5, 1870, the son of John Davis and Ann Van Lear Arbuckle. He received his B.A. degree, with first honor, from Hampden-Sydney College in 1889. Arbuckle spent the next year at Hampden-Sydney, having been elected by the faculty to a teaching fellowship, and receiving an M.A. degree from the College in 1890. He was a special student in chemistry at the University of Virginia in 1894-95, and he received a Ph.D. in chemistry from Johns Hopkins University in 1898. He married Ida Clift Meginniss of Tallahassee, Florida, on June 4, 1896. They had two children, Howard Bell Arbuckle, Jr. and Adele Taylor. Arbuckle was a professor, teaching first at the Seminary West of Suwanee (the foundation for Florida State University) where he was a professor of classical languages from 1891-94. He then taught at Agnes Scott Institute (now College) in Decatur, Georgia from 1898-1912. In 1913, he moved to Davidson College where he taught chemistry and was head of the Department of Chemistry until his retirement. Arbuckle continued to serve Pi Kappa Alpha after he left Hampden-Sydney: he was Councilor Princeps from 1900-05 and Grand Councilor from 1913-33. He died on July 19, 1945 at the age of 74 and is buried in Davidson, North Carolina.