In 1971 when I began teaching Writing and Literature in the LCC English Department, I became good friends with Ben Kirk, a Science Department teacher now deceased at age 96.
Ben had been awarded the honor of “The State of Michigan High-School Science Teacher of the Year” before moving to Oregon. Here he was assigned “Science in Your Life,” a course that demanded lockstep-teaching of largely irrelevant, standard, prescribed material in all sections.
But Ben, way ahead of his time with Master’s Degrees in Forestry, Physics, and Science Education, chose to teach valuable, necessary truths: timber industry short-sighted, long-term dangers of turning old-growth forests into mono-culture tree farms; of helicopter-spraying dangerous, miscarriage-causing poisonous chemicals on watersheds; of landslide-causing road building. He took students on field trips to examine unsanitary, unsafe conditions at local chicken-processing plants and egg-factory farms, and explored other environmental issues.
Ben left a penetrating impact on his students that changed their lives. They loved his open-discussion, reality-and-science-based classes. A huge number of LCC students protested at an evening Board Meeting when Top Administration tried to fire him for not following orders. His stealth firing happened anyway, a year later over Winter Break when students weren’t around.
When I picked up Ben to treat him to lunch (the last time I saw him), he literally skipped down a long, steep flight of stairs to greet me. He was 91 at the time. But still Ben.
He will certainly never have a marker, reminder, or tribute on campus for his farsightedness, dedication, and courage. But he was a true hero. Like the Roman philosopher Cato the Elder, he could honestly say, “After I’m dead I’d rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one.” Ben should be remembered and honored by anyone connected with LCC. Especially now.
Jerome Garger
27 Year Teacher of Writing, Literature and Political Science Creator of the Peace and Conflict Studies Program
