Megan Reed, Campus Carrier News Editor
Professor of philosophy David McKenzie will be retiring from full time teaching next month.
McKenzie has been at Berry since January 1978.
McKenzie gave a retirement lecture on April 16, which he said was one of his favorite memories from his time at Berry.
“A number of students and faculty were present,” McKenzie said. “That meant very much to me to have such a program and have students and faculty say nice things about my work.”
Jeffrey Lidke, associate professor of religion and philosophy, has known McKenzie for 11 years and said he has been an influence both personally and professionally.
“Dr. McKenzie has been my primary mentor over these 11 years,” Lidke said. “More than anyone else, he has taught me what it means to be a teacher, scholar and advisor at Berry. His passion and engagement in his ministry, his teaching, his scholarship and his service has, for me, been a model, one to emulate.”
McKenzie has also served as pastor of several churches in the Rome area, and several students have attended McKenzie’s churches, many serving as youth directors for the churches.
While McKenzie himself is Baptist and has taught several religion courses at Berry, he said he values Berry’s welcoming of people of all faiths.
“Berry represents a really good mean between extremes,” McKenzie said. “On the one side, you have state universities and colleges, where, in departments of philosophy, and maybe in departments of religion … it is easy for religious students to feel like they are being made fun of for their beliefs.”
Other schools, McKenzie said, enforce religious values too strongly.
“On the other side, you have private colleges and universities which are what I call creedal,” McKenzie said. “Professors have to sign a document when they come to teach … you have some restrictions there with what [beliefs] the professors teaching in the religion department can hold.”
McKenzie said he appreciates Berry’s Christian faith as well as the religious freedom it allows on campus.
“We honor the Christian faith,” McKenzie said. “We are Christian in spirit, and we have Christian values, but there’s no creed that somebody has to sign.”
Lidke said McKenzie’s message about inclusivity of Christianity and the importance of Berry as a welcoming community has also inspired him.
“He has inspired me in regards to demonstrating how we can be an institution that is grounded in Christian values and welcoming of others,” Lidke said. “This has shaped how I teach my classes and has also informed my work as chair of both the Interfaith Council and the department of religion and philosophy.”
Lidke said one of his fondest memories of McKenzie is a speech McKenzie gave in 2008 on this topic as part of a course which Lidke taught.
“His comments there about Christianity as an inclusivist religion and the call by Jesus to be compassionate were very inspiring,” Lidke said. “It was a great moment in which McKenzie the teacher and McKenzie the preacher came together.”
Junior Nathan Womack, who has been in several of McKenzie’s classes, said McKenzie’s “faith-driven” worldview is admirable and that McKenzie helped him “reaffirm” his own faith.
“He spoke to me on a completely different level than anyone else had ever spoken to me,” Womack said. “He helped me to progress through these really difficult times in my life.”
Womack said he admires McKenzie’s “friendly persona” and his efforts to connect on a personal level with everyone he meets.
“He is so in tune to everything. He’s really bright and open-minded and really just beyond intelligent,” Womack said. “I think perspicacious would be the word I would use to describe him, if I could pick one, of a myriad of words to describe Dr. McKenzie.”
McKenzie’s scholarly work and academic career are also admirable, Womack said.
“He wrote a very impressive article on the morality of miracles,” Womack said. “He has a really great way of wording things, which is another thing I admire about him.”
One of McKenzie’s most memorable qualities is his sense of humor and jokes before class, Womack said.
Womack, along with many other students, has gotten to know McKenzie personally, and Womack said one of his favorite memories with McKenzie involves a U-Haul, which Womack, McKenzie and another student named the “swag wagon.”
“He asked [senior Koby Boatright] and me to move this desk … from his church in Cave Spring to his house in Rome,” Womack said. “That was an adventure because you have three philosophy people who have no idea how to work a U-Haul.”
McKenzie will be returning in the fall to teach an honors course about faith and reason, and he said he plans to teach a class or two every year if a professor is needed.