By Darla Shelden, Metropolis Sentinel Reporter —
OKLAHOMA CITY – As a part of their commencement celebrations this 12 months, Oklahoma Metropolis College will dedicate one in every of his favourite campus spots to beloved professor, the late John Starkey. (June 17, 1953 – January 11, 2023)
The general public is invited to attend the interfaith tree and bench dedication at 1 p.m. on Thursday, Could 6 as family and friends have a good time Starkey’s life and dedication to serving others. Starkey taught at OCU for 21 years.
On the time of his passing, the devoted Millhouse Professor of Theology had earned quite a few honors, together with Excellent College Award in 2006, the Undergraduate Analysis Mentoring Award in 2014-15, the Excellence in Educating Award for Full-Time College in 2009, and Distinguished Honors Professor in 2001, 2005, 2008 and 2012.
Those that knew Starkey have been drastically impacted by his instructing and difficult questions, and his legacy is most embodied by the tributes given by his college students and colleagues. He spent greater than 20 years dedicated to his college students and others at Oklahoma Metropolis College.
“John Starkey had a profound affect on our college and demonstrated his love for others and the world round him on daily basis,” stated the Rev. Elizabeth Horton-Ware, director of non secular life at OCU. “We hope to honor his reminiscence by gathering as a neighborhood and celebrating his unimaginable life.”
Starkey may usually be seen taking a stroll round campus and having fun with its numerous beautification initiatives.
In honor and celebration of his love for nature and bushes, representatives of varied faiths will maintain the tree and bench dedication ceremony close to OCU’s Bishop W. Angie Smith Chapel.
Horton-Ware stated she felt it was vital to have one thing college students can have a look at to recollect him, reported Destyni Lietzke, of MediaOCU.
“We created a scholarship in his honor,…however we additionally wished one thing tangible that individuals may have a look at and bodily see and contact,” Horton-Ware stated “That’s the place the tree and bench thought got here into play. This manner, college students can have each.”
Olivia Clerk, a faith senior who had Starkey for a number of lessons all through her time at OCU stated a memorial tree being planted is ideal, Lietzke wrote.
“You’ll at all times discover him beneath a tree or round a tree. There’s tales and tales of him simply sitting exterior on the quad. He felt a particular connection to bushes and was at all times connecting them to religion,” Clerk stated.
In the course of the memorial service, on January 19, 2023, Dr. Mark Davies, Wimberly Professor of Social and Ecological Ethics at OCU, gave a tribute to his “good friend and colleague” John Starkey that learn partially:
“John was a former Jesuit who grew to become a Quaker and lived a lot of his final 21 and half years in service to Methodists each at OCU and thru instructing in United Methodist camps and church buildings. John practiced and taught the very best of what he skilled in these religious communities, and he liked and sought deeper understanding of his siblings from many different faiths and from those that oriented themselves in numerous methods to faith.
John liked the classroom and his books, however he was equally at residence and completely happy having fun with the fantastic thing about nature as might be seen when he would take his St. Francis like walks on campus discovering magnificence within the bushes, flowers, and the native vegetation. He additionally spent many days climbing within the Inexperienced and White mountain ranges of New England together with his pricey pals. John discovered pleasure in nature. Certainly one of his college students famous that “the way in which Starkey checked out bushes is the way in which we checked out Starkey.”
Parking will probably be out there for the dedication on the east finish of Noble Drive and within the Kramer Faculty of Nursing parking heaps.
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