Kiskiminetas Springs School - Kiski Yearbook (Saltsburg, PA)

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IN MEIVIORIAM Robert Kendall Brinker 1908-1972 . . and the elements so mixed in him that na- ture might say 'this was a man'. These words of Shakespeare describe as well as any the Bob Brinker we all knew. He was a man of many parts, a scholar, a lover of nature, an artist, a poet, and an admirer of athletics-all of these things combined to make him what he really was-a civilized man who was a teacher of other men. Most who were not intimately associated with this school do not, l believe, think of Bob primarily as being a teacher. They think of him rather as a keen Director of Admissions with an insight into boys which enabled him to foresee what frightened young 13 year-old applicant would become in four years, and whose charm formed friendships which lasted all through those four years. They think of him as the highly successful Director of Devel- opment and Alumni relations who took the name of Kiski to all parts of the country. These things Bob Brinker was, and these things he did with consumate grace. But those of us who knew him here, at his work, knew him as a teacher in the finest sense of the word, a man who loved to impart knowledge to people of all ages, and who did it with natural ease. To teachers of lesser talent, a small blackboard- lined room is the classroom, and the place where knowledge is mechanically passed on. For the great teachers, the world is the class- room, and knowledge flows from them freely, en- riching their conversation as the spring rain en- riches the mountain streams from which we drink. Bob was a natural teacher, a great teacher, equally at home explaining the wonders of a seashell to the wide-eyed little faculty children who invariably found their way to his door or explaining his poli- tics to a worldly-wise Kiski senior, or as a con- servationist showing generations of city boys how to appreciate the beauties of nature and to realize man's intimate connection with all other forms of animal and plant life, or pointing out celestial phe- nomena to adult astronomers. The world was his classroom, and all who came into contact with him were his pupils. He was a man of erudition. But erudition is not always an en- dearing quality. Some men wear it heavily and clumsily as though it were an overly large suit of armor. Bob wore his lightly with the same jaunti- ness with which he wore his beret and flowing scarf each winter. His erudition was not a costume which he donned each day, but rather an exten- sion of his personality. He was above all things a civilized man. Only five days before he died, l told Bob a story. I came upon him talking animatedly with a young student after lunch. And when the conversation had ended he put on his beret and walked off with his scarf stringing out in the December wind. The young man stood looking after him for a moment and then turned to me and said: Gee, that Mr. Brinker is sure a cool guy. l am glad l told that story to Bob before he died because l am sure that the honest affection and recognition of what he really was, which was included in the young boy's remark, made him very happy. Robert Brinker is a Kiski institution. He has gained the only kind of immortality it is possible for a man to gain-to be preserved in the hearts and minds and in the very lives of the generation of young men and adults whom he so deeply touch- ed. There are many ways, I suppose to determine the success of a man's life, and by any of these Bob's can be judged a great success. The build- ings of this lovely campus which he did so much to create: the hundreds and hundreds of students now grown to adulthood bearing the valuable pieces of erudition which he so generously gave them, the magnificent family, the love and affection which have always stood out as one of the won- ders of this community. All these by any standard of judgement mark his life as a successful one, but most of all I think he would like to be summed up in the words of that young student whom l quoted, That Mr. Brinker is sure a cool guyl The young man was really saying about Bob what Shake- speare was saying about Brutus- and the elements so mixed in him that nature might say this was a man! -John Anderson Pidgeon

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'Q we 1.. I John A. Pidgeon Bowdoin College 1949, A.B. English Appointed Headmaster 1957