Phi Eta Sigma was founded on March 22, 1923, to encourage and reward high scholastic achievement among members of the freshman classes at the University of Illinois. This statement expresses simply the inspiration that moved the founders of Phi Eta Sigma in their formation of the society.  The initial inspiration for Phi Eta Sigma came from Dean Thomas Arkle Clark and it came out of his life's experience. Orphaned at three months, he was raised in the family of his mother's sister, whose name he took as his own, in rural Illinois. At age fifteen he was left by death as the sole support of his surrogate mother and an invalid brother. His motto by then was, 'Take a difficult task and ... do it better than those for whom the task is easy."

Transition into the future of Phi Eta Sigma, nurtured by the structures built by generations of leaders through the previous decades, was formalized by action over Summer 2019 when the national office was relocated physically to the campus of The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, KY.

A few basic principles - dedicated leadership, devotion to students, prudent management, constant improvement in efficiency - all infused with an enthusiastic commitment to service have served Phi Eta Sigma for nearly a century, and are ready to function for many more.