Dr. Donald G. Smith (Former Moody Professor)
Dr. Smith, Happy Birthday to you on your 89th birthday, or the 50th anniversary of your 39th birthday.
Anyway, there is always one event that will always stand out in my mind about you - other than your son, of course. I had a freshman speech class with you, and one of the speeches we had to make was, I think, a three minute presentation on something of interest to us. So I decided to do mine on "How To Tie a Tie". I was going to do the simple overhand knot, the half windsor, and the full windsor. I suppose that if I really knew what I was talking about, I could have done it easily. It amounted to a three point presentation. So I really had to move fast. I only had an idea of what I was going to say. Other than the outline we handed to you, I had not written anything out or memorized anything like I would years later. So that was the first problem.
The second problem was the fact that you sat at the back of the class with some wooden box with three buttons and three lights on it. The lights faced the speaker like a traffic signal. When you pushed the button for the green light, it indicated to the presenter that he only had a certain amount of time left. The yellow light signified that time was running out quickly and the speech-maker had better be near the finish line. The red light indicated that the time was up and that all speech was to end now. Well, as with all speeches, there are those who do not end now or later. But you had a way of dealing with those people, a way that would terminate the ability to even think anymore, hence the end of the speech. There would be an occasional orator (like myself) who had not planned well and seemed to be ignoring the incremental lighting system you had employed to get the speaker to push the stick forward and bring his plane to the ground. Or, there would be one - even when he saw the red light - who looked as if he was pulling back on the stick and was ascending back into the heavens to take one more pass over the airport. You did not see either of these situations as a large problem, however. You would flip that light box over and start rolling it on all the buttons at that same time so that red, green, and yellow was going off as if the Highway Patrol was parked in the back of the room. It was the equivalent of jamming the radio signals of The Voice of America into Red China. The effect was to silence all windbags instantly.
Not only was I the victim of that thing, but I remember afterwards when you wrote your critique on my outline that I should "stop calling everything a thing", which I was wont to do being from Kentucky. And just like I just did at the beginning of the previous sentence. I did learn to stop a sermon on time, but I never did stop calling everything a thing. I have no recollection that you had any effect on me with regards to that. I only remember that you pointed out something that I had never thought about before and probably haven't again since the day you first recognized it. May the Lord richly bless you and enable you to give great glory and honor to His Son with the days He still gives you.
Anyway, there is always one event that will always stand out in my mind about you - other than your son, of course. I had a freshman speech class with you, and one of the speeches we had to make was, I think, a three minute presentation on something of interest to us. So I decided to do mine on "How To Tie a Tie". I was going to do the simple overhand knot, the half windsor, and the full windsor. I suppose that if I really knew what I was talking about, I could have done it easily. It amounted to a three point presentation. So I really had to move fast. I only had an idea of what I was going to say. Other than the outline we handed to you, I had not written anything out or memorized anything like I would years later. So that was the first problem.
The second problem was the fact that you sat at the back of the class with some wooden box with three buttons and three lights on it. The lights faced the speaker like a traffic signal. When you pushed the button for the green light, it indicated to the presenter that he only had a certain amount of time left. The yellow light signified that time was running out quickly and the speech-maker had better be near the finish line. The red light indicated that the time was up and that all speech was to end now. Well, as with all speeches, there are those who do not end now or later. But you had a way of dealing with those people, a way that would terminate the ability to even think anymore, hence the end of the speech. There would be an occasional orator (like myself) who had not planned well and seemed to be ignoring the incremental lighting system you had employed to get the speaker to push the stick forward and bring his plane to the ground. Or, there would be one - even when he saw the red light - who looked as if he was pulling back on the stick and was ascending back into the heavens to take one more pass over the airport. You did not see either of these situations as a large problem, however. You would flip that light box over and start rolling it on all the buttons at that same time so that red, green, and yellow was going off as if the Highway Patrol was parked in the back of the room. It was the equivalent of jamming the radio signals of The Voice of America into Red China. The effect was to silence all windbags instantly.
Not only was I the victim of that thing, but I remember afterwards when you wrote your critique on my outline that I should "stop calling everything a thing", which I was wont to do being from Kentucky. And just like I just did at the beginning of the previous sentence. I did learn to stop a sermon on time, but I never did stop calling everything a thing. I have no recollection that you had any effect on me with regards to that. I only remember that you pointed out something that I had never thought about before and probably haven't again since the day you first recognized it. May the Lord richly bless you and enable you to give great glory and honor to His Son with the days He still gives you.