In 1996 at age 90 plus, past international president Emery Stoops established a graduate scholarship with PDK for Kappans attending the University of Southern California in the School of Education. If students attending USC do not apply in a given year, Phi Delta Kappa will select the recipient from the pool of qualified applicants.

Dr. Stoops is a remarkable man and a PDK legend. He was inducted into Phi Delta Kappa in 1932 by the University of Southern California Chapter and served as PDK International President from 1954 to 1956. Benchmarks of his presidential tenure include the appointment of the site selection committee for the Phi Delta Kappa headquarters building, organization of the University of Hawaii Chapter in 1949 as the first PDK chapter off the mainland of the United States, and the installation of PDK's first international chapter at the University of Toronto in 1955.

The education career of Emery Stoops is equally impressive. He grew up in Kansas and attended a prairie school. After graduating from the University of Colorado in 1930, Emery went to California and USC to work on a master's degree in education and teach. He returned to USC in 1941 to earn an Ed.D., joined the faculty in 1953, and retired professor emeritus in 1970.

Dr. Stoops has taught at ten universities, authored 16 books and more than fifty articles, and served as an educational consultant to the U.S. Office of Education and the California State Department of Education. His generosity to the profession and future education leaders is evident in his establishment of 16 scholarships at four universities.

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