by David Melton
During the recent college football season, I reveled in a few victories by one of my alma maters … the University of Oklahoma. If you prefer the color orange, I just lost you. Sorry … sort of. I remember my days at OU for some football games, but mostly for one professor, Andrew Jackson Heisserer. He was my primary professor in the History Department and he taught me more about how to study history than anybody else.
Heisserer would eventually become “Andy” many years later — but in my student years he was the scholar who set the bar high and then helped me find a way over it. I remember writing a project for him about the ancient Philippines which I thought was worthy of publication! Dr. H gave it back with a short synopsis: “David, I can tell you have spent some time on this, but it is, shall we say, problematic.” I also remember my grief over a B he gave me. His response, “Well, I’m not sure I understand your angst … I think this is above average work! Congratulations!” He pushed me to get better at my craft. To whatever degree that happened, he must get some serious credit.
I appreciate Andy now more than ever. When I teach students about source analysis, as I do every year here at Boston Baptist in my course on “Jesus and Christianity through the Ages,” Andrew Jackson Heisserer is doing much of the teaching. I stood in a classroom a few weeks back and talked with students about the ancient “Palatino Graffito” — important stuff for understanding the rise of Christianity. My history coach, Andy, had his fingerprints all over the thing.
I and the rest of us can do what we do because others coached us up along the way. For me, remembering with gratitude what Andy did for me was long overdue. And even better than football.