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| Features |
| Called from retirement:A story of the Kirks at Livingstonia University |
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by
Edward Nyirenda, 14 July 2006
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06:34:50
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Having served over 40 years in administrative, counselling and teaching professions at a variety of institutional settings, Dr Henry Kirk and his wife Jenny, another long time educationist with 25 years experience, were ready to retire, sit back and relax when Jenny received a call from a Malawian family friend, Reverend Howard Matiya Nkhoma, General Secretary of the Livingstonia Synod.
Reverend Matiya Nkhoma had been at the Kirks’ house in 2000 and had seen how the couple was devoted to higher education and wanted to take them on board for his synod’s university project.
“He [Matiya] wanted to know if we would be interested to come and do a feasibility study about establishing the synod’s university in Malawi. I told him I could not answer for Henry, but would bring him over,” Jenny recalls.
So the Kirk couple came in 2002 to do the study. They had never been to Livingstonia.
“I was only seven days into retirement when the call came but the project appeared worth venturing into. Someday, we will retire but in the mean time, this project is full of fun, gratifying and we are happy to be part of it,” says Jenny.
That is how Henry and his wife found themselves at Livingstonia. Henry had just retired from Centralia College in Washington, the United States of America (USA) where he was the college’s president for six years since 1986.
Prior to 1986 Henry served as vice-president for Institutional Advancement and assistant to the president at Pasadena City College in California, also in the USA for five years. He also held senior administrative and faculty positions at several colleges in Washington and California between 1963 and 1981.
“I was also active in various professional associations in the two states,” says Henry.
This clearly demonstrates the leadership qualities Henry possesses. No wonder he has received a number of honours, two of which are The Distinguished Service Award for his outstanding service to education and the Earl Norman Award for his leadership in higher education.
Henry has also been published in numerous educational journals. If you are close to a library with a collection of Western bibliographies, check in Who’s Who in the West or Who’s Who in American Education, you will come across the name Henry Kirk.
Henry is one man who prides himself in being involved in a number of community service projects. This, maybe, explains why he took up the challenge to come to Malawi and help the synod establish the university.
“I am a Rotarian and have served as president of Rotary clubs both in Washington and California,” says the lively leader.
Since 1998, Dr Kirk has worked with Malawi Support Team and the Synod of Livingstonia among other organisations to engender support for programmes and projects identified as priorities for the synod.
“My wife and I have helped the synod raise money for upkeep of church ministers and scholarships for children,” says Henry.
Henry, who graduated with bachelors’ degree in History from Geneva College in 1958, a masters’ degree from the University of Denver and has also been to the universities of Southern California and Harvard has three children and eight grandchildren.
An ardent believer in the saying that ‘behind every successful man, there is a woman’, Henry confesses that he owes his success to his wife Jenny.
“My wife and I form a strong force and make things happen,” he muses.
The upbeat Jenny has 25 years of managerial and administrative experience in higher education. She has focused her career on administrative organisation and special project management with emphasis on fundraising and public relations activities.
It is not surprising, therefore, that she is the Director of University Relations at Livingstonia. She also serves as president of the Livingstonia University Foundation which brings together friends who are dedicated to the advancement of the university.
The Kirks, who enjoy travelling, gardening, photography and making friends, say they are pleased with the way the university has taken off saying it is on target.
“The real challenge at the moment is sustainability,” says Jenny, adding that in the next two years, they will be working out of their respective jobs as they had committed themselves to the day-to-day operations for the first three to five years.
Adds Jenny: “We want to turn towards strategic planning for the university. We also want to concentrate on keeping connections we have made for the university going and make new ones.”
To show their commitment to the project the Kirks are working for no pay at all. They meet their own daily expenses.
Says Henry: “There is more to life than money. We get our satisfaction in seeing the university progress.”
At the end of it all, you cannot talk about Henry without the mention of Jenny. The couple is inseparable and disproves the mathematical theory that one plus one equals two. To them, one plus one is equal to one and they are determined to take University of Livingstonia to greater heights. |
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