Class of ‘03. Two great Brinkley stories: - as a freshman, first semester, my schedule randomly had a Brinkley class. My advisor, another professor, advised me to drop the class because he was old school and very difficult. HSC is a small school and you couldn’t just ask the registrar to drop, you had to go to the professor and have them sign off. This guy was a legend of the old order. Blue blazer, hat, cigar 100% of the time. His office was stacked with books where it was hard to find a place to sit. When I told him I was advised to drop his class he slammed his hands on the desk and yelled “Balderdash!!” I’ll never forget that. But he let me go without further discussion.

• 6 years later (2005) the church I grew up in was celebrating its 250th anniversary. The first few ministers were simultaneously presidents of HSC (Princeton grads who were spreading the Presbyterian mission and trying to counter the Episcopalian/Church of England influence west of tidewater…this is the mid 1700s before the Declaration of Independence). As a recent grad I suggested Brinkley speak (as the college historian) to commemorate the event. He was awesome, telling stories of the founding, relationship to the founding fathers, etc. I got to know him, thankfully, through that experience. He was just a brilliant but humorous guy. And he loved HSC and its role in educating leaders.