Dear Editor,
As a Berry alum (93C) who is now a college professor, I was fortunate to have many examples of outstanding faculty from whose examples I could draw in my own teaching. Professor Alan Marks taught me the role of science in psychology. The late, great Gordon Carper dazzled me with his narrative style. But, the professor who had most enduring influence on my life is David McKenzie.
As a (naive) freshman in 1989 I didn’t really know what I was getting into when I signed up to take Dr. McKenzie for Intro to Philosophy and Philosophy of Religion in the same semester. I had no particular idea of what philosophy was and as an aspiring scientist I didn’t even think it’d be all that important to me. Philosophy seemed like head-in-the-clouds stuff, and religion just wasn’t important in my life.
Little could I know how that semester would change me, as Dr. McKenzie taught me to think. He taught students to probe their ideas, to be open to new ones, to ask ourselves what we didn’t know. His questioning could turn on a dime, such that just when I thought I was figuring him out he’d switch gears and leave me realizing how many more dimensions there were to the problem at hand. And yet, throughout any given class his demeanor would be warm, encouraging, and utterly impartial within a room full of passionate opinion.
After one semester I was sufficiently hooked that I added philosophy as a minor. After another semester I upgraded it to a second major, and over the next few years I took almost every class he had to offer. I practically took up residence in the philosophy seminar room (where someone had engraved the wood of a particularly comfy chair to read, “McKenzie is God” – a sentiment directly at odds with his Dr. McKenzie’s own humility).
In 1993 I graduated with my degrees in psychology and religion and philosophy. Three years later Dr. McKenzie was the only choice to officiate my wedding ceremony in Barnwell Chapel. For my 17 years as a professor he has been omnipresent in my classroom, as I highlight what science knows and doesn’t know, and the role philosophy can play as we navigate the questions of psychology and science. And, for the 24 years since I took that first class he has been omnipresent in my thinking, as I wrestle with questions of faith and morality, ethics and science, trying to figure out what to make of this world.
Dr. McKenzie is retiring from teaching this semester, and behind him he leaves an immeasurable legacy as a wonderful professor for thousands of students. As an educator of both the head and the heart he is the embodiment of the best that Berry has to offer.