Delbert Gilpatrick - Furman Mentors
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DELBERT GILPATRICK
I entered Furman as a green, naive freshman in 1951. I’m embarrassed to admit that I thought if you read something in a non-fiction book or newspaper, it was true.
Even though it’s been more than 50 years, I still remember one of our first assignments in Dr. Gilpatrick’s class. We were to read articles out of three designated sources. We were instructed to read each, point out the bias of the article, and use facts to prove our view. Placing blame for World War I was the subject.
I was amazed to see that one source blamed America and her allies, another blamed Austria and her allies, and the third source was unbiased and gave both sides of the issue.
I learned then that it’s important to get several viewpoints to make a wise decision in solving any problem. I also learned that you can’t believe everything you read. Perhaps the most important lesson was to remember to keep an open mind to all points of view. These lessons have served me well throughout my life and teaching career.
The most important quality I admired about Dr. Gilpatrick was that he never tried to impose his ideology on us. In fact, we didn’t even know what it was. He truly was an unbiased professor.
— JEAN ASH KIRKPATRICK ’55