CHARLESTON, W.Va. –A soon to be 2025 graduate of the University of Charleston will be fulfilling a promise he made to his late wife on Saturday.
Glenn Kirk, at 78, will be graduating with an associate’s degree in business administration, 58 years after he promised his wife, Joyce, he would do so.
Kirk, along with Dr. Beth Wolfe, the university’s Executive Vice President of Enrollment Management, were on MetroNews Midday Friday afternoon.
He said that he met his wife when they 14 years old, began dating at 15 and eventually got married at 19. He began attending Morris Harvey College, now known as the University of Charleston and during that time he and Joyce would go walking around the capitol grounds.
One day Joyce decided that she wanted to go down some steps to the Kanawha River, which just happened to be the day of graduation in 1967.
Kirk says as they watched the graduates walk to the gymnasium, that’s when he made the promise.
“And she looked at me and said one day that’ll be us, and I said babe, I promise you, one day that’ll be us,” he said.
However, he said one year later in 1968, he got the opportunity to go to Michigan and wasn’t able to finish his degree at Morris Harvey. He did go on and earn a degree at Eastern Michigan University and a master’s degree at Central Michigan University.
He said that in February 2024, he came to UC because they were having a fundraiser, and he wanted to see if he could fulfill that promise.
Kirk said that the, the administrators, one of whom was Beth, that were there to receive donations, made it happen after hearing his story.
“I told her the story and what I wanted to do, she got Gale involved, Gale got Beth involved,” Kirk said. “Within 30 minutes we’re all sitting around a table and Beth was banging on the table and said we’re going to make this happen.”
Wolfe said that it was an honor to be able to help Kirk with the promise.
She said that at first, they thought they were having to use some credits from his previous degrees to help him fulfill the requirements for the degree.
However, she said that once they go to looking, he had all of the credits he needed from Morris Harvey College.
“We did not have to use a single credit to transfer, and he did not have to sign up for a single class,” Wolfe said.
Kirk said being able to fulfill the promise, with the help of administrators, has a lot of meaning behind it for him and his family.
“It’s fulfilling a promise, it’s completing a circle coming right back to where were when we got married, where we were when we had our first child so it’s that, it’s also I’m going to have four generations at this graduation,” he said.
He also said it sends a message of love, integrity, being true and the importance of education.
Kirk said to anyone wanting to keep a promise to someone they love; it starts with putting in the effort.
“I believe if you’re a person of integrity, and a person who cares for somebody the way I did Joyce then you’ll step up and try your best to keep that promise,” he said. “There was no guarantee that I was going to be able to do this, but there was a guarantee that I was going to give it my best shot. That’s my message, be true to yourself and do the right thing.”
Kirk will be among the over 100 undergraduates walking across the stage at 10 a.m. in the Wehrle Arena.