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Humanities: In one year we grew up by two millennia
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JU faculty members in 1958 included (l-r): Robert Flick, Dr. Maxine MacKay, Suzanne Blow, Robert Allison, George Hallam, Robert Woodhouse, Dr. Frances Kinne, and Wilma Horton.

Of all the college professors and instructors from whom I have learned so much, one made a truly lasting impression on me then—and to this day.

We were required by the University to take certain courses, including one called Humanities. Humanities included a sweeping overview of Western culture from Greek pre-history through the Twentieth Century–art, literature and music. It was a daunting challenge for any instructor to undertake, especially in light of the audience, students just out of secondary school systems nearby not then noted for academic excellence.

We weren’t sure what to expect regarding this course – was it music, or art appreciation, or some version of social studies? We certainly didn’t expect on that first morning class of our Sophomore year in September 1958, for a vivacious, beautiful, and effervescent professor – a Dr. Frances Kinne – to enter our lives – and for many of us, for the rest of our lives.

So, we waited expectantly for the door to our Founders Building classroom to open and reveal our instructor for the Humanities class, a new Professor to JU, a Dr. Frances Kinne. When the door opened a few moments later, we were surprised by the beautiful, vivacious person who swept, more than entered, the classroom. Our lives had changed–and we knew it.

Dr. Tracy Connors (right), borrows the JU President's "golf cart" to take JU Chancellor Emeritus, Dr. Fran Kinne (left) and Faith Connors "on a spin" around the university's beautiful "reparian" campus on the St. Johns River in Jacksonville.
Dr. Tracy Connors (right), borrows the JU President’s “golf cart” to take JU Chancellor Emeritus, Dr. Fran Kinne (left) and Faith Connors “on a spin” around the university’s beautiful “reparian” campus on the St. Johns River in Jacksonville.

Even after all these years that academic year with Fran Kinne remains the most important and memorable of all the many, many courses and programs I have since experienced.

Dr. Kinne was passionate in her determination that we would understand as fully as possible the importance of human expression in all of its many forms.

The title of the textbook she chose for this class was “The Search for Personal Freedom.” It could well serve as a summary of both the subjects we covered with her guidance, and also the influences she had on our lives. In my eyes, if my other professors were memorable for their subject matter knowledge, passion, and respect for me as a person and a student, then Dr. Kinne was in a league by herself.

Her knowledge of the various subjects included was awesome, long before the term was appropriated by a much younger generation. However, it was her palpable enthusiasm–enlivening even the Greek tragedians–that caught us up in the global drama of Western culture’s struggles to leave the Cave and set out on the odyssey towards enlightenment, a meandering journey yet to be fulfilled.

One day as we were to take up Western music, there was a commotion outside the double door of the new classroom to which we had be told to report. Two JU custodial personnel were wrestling a grand piano down the concourse and into the room. Wonder who the pianist would be, we thought.

Minutes later, it was Dr. Kinne herself who was seated at the piano as she began to explain to us the evolution and marvels of music since the end of plain song following the collapse of the Roman Empire. As she engaged us – not lectured us– about this enthralling, soul satisfying expression of human spirit referred to as “classical music,” she would play for us excerpts from those composers most closely associated with the best compositions from each era to illustrate the points she was making.

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About Tracy Connors

Tracy D. Connors graduated from Jacksonville University (AA), University of Florida (BA), the University of Rhode Island (MA), and Capella University (Ph.D. with Distinction, human services management, 2013). Ph.D. (Honorary), Leadership Excellence, Jacksonville University, December, 2013. Designated a "Distinguished Dolphin" by Jacksonville University, Feb. 2, 2010.

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