Located in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, Dartmouth College provides a unique setting for a chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. However, during the spring of 1971 an Alpha Brother who was a student at Boston University Medical School and his natural brother Anderson Jerome Lonian (a freshman at Dartmouth) discussed the possibility of starting an undergraduate Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha at Dartmouth.

Finally, in the spring of 1972, seven Dartmouth students were initiated into Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., and Theta Zeta was chartered as the 381st undergraduate Chapter of the Fraternity. Ironically, like the origins of Alpha Chapter, the origins of Theta Zeta lay in the perseverance and dedication of seven young men, the Jewels of the Chapter.