One of the oldest active professors in the nation, Dr. Richard I. McKinney, professor emeritus of philosophy at Morgan State University, has spent all of his life on college campuses and plans to keep on going. This semester will see him teaching at least one class.
He enjoys the students reactions when they find out he is 90 years old.
“A couple of years ago I gave an assignment where students had to go to the library to look up some material. And the next time the class met one student said to me, `Is your name Richard I. McKinney and did you write such and such book?’
“I said yes.
“He looked puzzled and later I realized why,” laughed McKinney, “He had apparently seen the my date of birth [1906] on one of the library cards for one of my books.”
McKinney takes the student’s amazement philosophically and says a part of how to stay young is to be around young people. “I like to be around young people and if I stay around just older persons I will tend to think and act that way,” McKinney says. “And seeing me, they learn that age can be just a number.”
Having been born on a college campus 90 years ago and having spent most of his adult life as a professor, it does seem that McKinney has always been around academia and young people. “I’ve spent all my life on a college campus, having been born when my father headed Farmer Institute which later became Florida Memorial college in Florida. Both my parents had been students at the college,” he recalled.
