William Raimond Baird was the namesake and Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities

Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities

Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities is a compendium of fraternities and sororities in the United States and Canada first published in 1879. It covers national and international general , professional, and honor fraternities, including defunct organizations, with an overview of each...

 and publisher of its early editions.

Biography

He was born in 1848 and in 1878 he graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology

Stevens Institute of Technology

Stevens Institute of Technology is a technological university located on a campus in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA – founded in 1870 with an 1868 bequest from Edwin A. Stevens. It is known for its engineering, science, and technological management curricula.The institute has produced leading...

 in Hoboken, New Jersey

Hoboken, New Jersey

Hoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 50,005. The city is part of the New York metropolitan area and contains Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub for the region...

. He exhaustively researched other organizations seeking a suitable partner to merge with his own Alpha Sigma Chi fraternity. He selected Beta Theta Pi

Beta Theta Pi

Beta Theta Pi , often just called Beta, is a social collegiate fraternity that was founded in 1839 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, USA, where it is part of the Miami Triad which includes Phi Delta Theta and Sigma Chi. It has over 138 active chapters and colonies in the United States and Canada...

, which absorbed ΑΣΧ in 1879. As no authoritative resource on the subject existed, Baird published his research for the benefit of the public as American College Fraternities. He died in 1917.