C. Richard "Dick" Petticrew, front row, left, in an old debate team photo

C. Richard "Dick" Petticrew, longtime sponsor of the department's speech and debate team, died April 1 at the age of 92.

He was a 1937 graduate in chemical engineering and the retired CEO of National Collegiate Life Insurance, a company he helped to found in the 1940s after years of military duty during World War II.

Petticrew's generosity helped establish the C. Richard Petticrew Speech and Debate Forum in 1990 at Purdue University. Department Professor Charles Stewart said Petticrew's experience as a Purdue intercollegiate debater in the 1930s had a profound effect on Petticrew as a person and successful business and community leader. As a member of Purdue's debate team, Petticrew and his partner, R. F. Royster, held the remarkable record of 56 consecutive victories over a three-year period.

"He wanted to make a gift to help fund this revival that would offer experiences he had found so valuable, to new generations of Purdue students," Stewart said.

His initial gift of $20,000 was soon to be followed by many similar gifts. Each year Purdue now fields an outstanding debate team and plays host to a prestigious debate tournament.

"Dick Petticrew and his wife, Sally, enjoyed coming to the finals of these contests, and we would ask him to say a few words while the judges were making their decisions," Stewart said. "His off-the-cuff comments about communication and the importance of communication skills to all of our lives were always different but profound. He understood and could articulate the basic principles of human communication that few of us scholar-teachers could match."

Through his generous financial contributions, Purdue's revived Petticrew Forum has grown to become a competitive force on the Midwestern speech circuit.

"He followed the activities of the Petticrew Forum and was excited to learn that it was not merely a Department of Communication or College of Liberal Arts activity but one that reached out to and involved students throughout campus, much as he had been in the 1930s," Stewart said.

"Dick was pleased to hear about the debate tournament we now hold at Purdue each fall and of the successes of the Purdue students at universities throughout the Midwest and the national tournament. He and his family have now assured that his 'forum' will enhance the personal and professional lives of Purdue students for generations to come."

While his contributions to debate at Purdue will always be honored, Stewart said Petticrew will above all be remembered as a "warm human being who loved Purdue and its students. His ability to talk to each person as if no one else was around or mattered made interactions with him a pleasure. He always wanted to know about you and what you were doing."