{"id":1128,"date":"2009-11-03T22:24:30","date_gmt":"2009-11-04T03:24:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wjfuoco.com\/?p=1128"},"modified":"2009-12-09T09:41:44","modified_gmt":"2009-12-09T14:41:44","slug":"american-university-of-rome-prof-terry-kirk-passes-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.wjfuoco.com\/index.php\/2009\/11\/american-university-of-rome-prof-terry-kirk-passes-away\/","title":{"rendered":"American University of Rome Prof Terry Kirk Passes Away"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"terry-kirk\"For those of you that know of American University of Rome (AUR) Art History Professor Terry Kirk, I hope I’m not the bearer of bad news, but he did pass away. \u00a0I just found out today (11\/3\/09 – 9pm) by viewing the AUR<\/a> home page. \u00a0There was also a PDF attached detailing information for a memorial celebration<\/a> on November 5th in Rome.<\/p>\n

There was no more information on his passing other than the page stating that it was a “premature loss”. \u00a0I emailed AUR this evening<\/span> on 11\/3\/09\u00a0expressing my condolences and inquiring about any further details. \u00a0My response yielded that Professor Kirk did appear to have committed suicide. \u00a0However, it is not an official confirmation.<\/p>\n

*Update on 12\/9\/2009*: \u00a0I just read another blog regarding Professor Kirk by another former student of his, John James Anderson – you can find more details about his teaching’s impact, as well as his suicide here – In Memorium: Terry Kirk<\/a>.\u00a0There is also a great link to an article in the LA Times about Fascist Rome, with Professor Kirk referenced as an expert.<\/p>\n

*A memorial website<\/a> has been set up with much information regarding Professor Kirk and his work. \u00a0Please visit the site, you’ll immediately recall the man who introduced you to all that is Rome.<\/p>\n

So why is this such a big deal? \u00a0If you are a former student of Professor Kirk, you’d know. \u00a0He was probably one of the top 2 professors I ever had. \u00a0He had the qualities of a great teacher: passion, drive, desire to teach, and love for students and the desire to get them to learn and be more than themselves.<\/p>\n

Professor Kirk taught me the entry level course, Art of Rome, by far the most exciting class I ever took in my life. \u00a0It was a 1 day a week, 3 hour class, held on site some where in Rome. \u00a0The first class was…the Pantheon…excuse me, at the Pantheon! \u00a0We met at the Forum, the Vatican Museums, various churches, and the Flavian Amphitheater (also incorrectly known as the Colosseum – something Professor Kirk instilled in all of us!). \u00a0Now this was a class in which we were engaged with what we were learning! \u00a0He even allowed parents\/friends to come to class as long as they were willing to participate in the class discussion! \u00a0It was a great learning environment, especially learning about everything we were seeing each week. \u00a0I still have all my notes, papers, and handouts from his course. \u00a0I figured that when I get back to Roma, I’ll have to pull out all the information he gave me to refresh my memory on everything I’ll be seeing again.<\/p>\n

Therefore, in honor of Professor Kirk’s memory, I figured it was only suitable I show a video of him in action, what a dynamic speaker!<\/p>\n

[FLOWPLAYER=http:\/\/www.wjfuoco.com\/movies\/rome06\/kirk-coloseum.flv,480,360]<\/p>\n

Thanks to my good RMU friend Mikey for filming and providing me the video!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For those of you that know of American University of Rome (AUR) Art History Professor Terry Kirk, I hope I’m not the bearer of bad news, but he did pass away. \u00a0I just found out today (11\/3\/09 – 9pm) by viewing the AUR home page. \u00a0There was also a PDF attached detailing information for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wjfuoco.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wjfuoco.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wjfuoco.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wjfuoco.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wjfuoco.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1128"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"http:\/\/www.wjfuoco.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1201,"href":"http:\/\/www.wjfuoco.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1128\/revisions\/1201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wjfuoco.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wjfuoco.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wjfuoco.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}