The Ritual and Early Expansion |
Mixson and Wagener authored the Fraternity's Ritual in 1906. The two had grown up together in historic St. John's Lutheran Church. Simon added a Roman Catholic influence, and the Ritual included the "ideals of Christian manhood" (although it does not exclude men of other religions). Henry Patrick Wagener, Pelzer's younger brother, was the first Pi Kappa Phi member initiated under the Fraternity's Ritual on March 24, 1906. The younger Wagener would go on to become a renowned physician.
That year, the group rejected a charter offered from another national fraternity. Although that might have been the easiest way to achieve permanence, the men chose instead to expand and create more Pi Kappa Phi chapters.
The men of Pi Kappa Phi had made many contacts at Presbyterian College in upstate Clinton, S.C., through sports and other activities. With those contacts, Kroeg was able to stir interest in a second chapter. On March 9,1907, the men of Alpha Chapter at Charleston granted a charter for Beta Chapter at Presbyterian.
By this time, Ted Kelly had moved to the other side of the United States to attend the University of California-Berkley, and he cultivated a group interested in Pi Kappa Phi. The men of Charleston granted a long-distance charter for Gamma Chapter. The Gamma Chapter truly established Pi Kappa Phi as a national fraternity, perhaps making it the most significant charter ever granted. Gamma was also the first chapter of the Fraternity to enjoy a chapter house.