Herman and Marguerite Pinkerton served the university for more than 50 years. He joined the faculty as an associate professor of political science in 1926 and quickly became involved in forensic activities. The speech club, he helped develop, in 1930 became the Pinkerton Society. His teams won 12 state championships in debate. He was also director for 23 years of the District V Tennessee Interscholastic Literary League, which became the Speech and Drama League. Mrs. Pinkerton was a high school debate coach in Cookeville for many years. She assisted her husband throughout his career. Together, they matched contributions to the Pinkerton Debate Scholarship Fund dollar for dollar.

Mattie Sue Cooper began working in Tennessee Tech’s library in 1945. She was head of the library’s reference department for 15 years and helped the Rho Epsilon Rho pep club, served as sponsor of various classes and participated on many committees. She was, for years, a member of the Pinkerton Scholarship Committee, a logical task since she was a member of one of the first women’s teams to debate at TTU.