The History of Pi Kappa Delta

Read Professor Larry Norton's History of PKD's First 75 Years: Part I, Part II


The concept that resulted in the creation of Pi Kappa Delta was the realization of the need for a means of providing recognition for orators and debaters at small colleges. The idea came to two founders of the honorary, John A. Schields and Egbert R. Nichols,  almost simultaneously. In the autumn of 1911, Schields was a junior at Ottawa University in Ottawa, Kansas and Nichols, who had been a professor of English at Ottawa, was beginning his work at Ripon College as head of the Department of Composition and Public Speaking. The two were friends and kept in touch with each other through occasional letters. Nichols related how his debaters on a trip to Lawrence College in Appleton, Wisconsin noticed that the Lawrence debaters were wearing a forensic key. Lawrence College had just been admitted to an organization which, at the time, admitted just one college in each state. This suggested to the Ripon debaters the need to establish a new organization. In Kansas, Schields had likewise discovered the need for such a society. When the debaters to the Kansas State Prohibitional Oratorical Association assembled in Manhattan, Kansas, Schields found another person, Edgar M. Vaughn, who was interested in creating a means of recognizing orators and debaters. The Ripon group adopted a constitution and sent it to Schields at Ottawa where it was adopted by the Kansas group with several changes. Suggestions for the design of the key were also presented and after some modifications, a pear-shaped key with two jewels was adopted. The first key was ordered by Vaughn in 1913.

The name for the organization was supplied by Mrs. Grace Goodrich, a student in Greek at Ripon College. Pi Kappa Delta was chosen because it was comprised of the first letters of the Greek phrase Peitho Kale Dikaia, "The art of persuasion, beautiful and just." The Kansas group proposed the idea of including degrees as well as orders in the new society, which showed the Masonic influence on the early history of Pi Kappa Delta (both Schields and Vaughn were Masons). Vaughn had the imagination to see the essential purpose of the organization, which was to bestow an honorary key on orators, debaters and coaches. He wished to show, through jewels, the distinction of each member in terms of their order and degree.