Garland said Baylor is honored to have retained a professor of Kirk’s stature, noting that he is among just 23 professors to receive Baylor’s highest recognition of Master Teacher.

“I think it demonstrates their commitment to the students, to the discipline that they’re teaching and their commitment to the university,” Garland said. “Many people will start their first teaching job somewhere and they’ll move somewhere else, so this is an extremely rare feat.”

Spain, 91, applied to more than 15 Southern colleges but was drawn to Baylor’s religious affiliation and Christian-infused education principles.

The university at that time also was more focused on teaching instead of research, and Spain had freedom to teach recent American history post-1890 to his students, who appreciated his firsthand accounts of major U.S. events.

For example, Spain served in World War II, including the D-Day invasion at Normandy, as well as the Korean War, though he was not directly involved in combat.

“When I got down to the 1930s (in lectures), it was all recollection on my part,” Spain said. “I covered World War II in a couple weeks, but I didn’t dwell on it, but the students were very interested in it, of course. They were interested in the Depression, too.”