KIRWAN: RELATIVE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

As the academic year opened fifty years ago in the fall of 1968, University of Kentucky leadership was transitioning.  President John Oswald resigned the previous spring following political sparring with Kentucky's new governor, Louie B. Nunn who also served as Chair of the UK Board of Trustees.  During his five year tenure as president, Oswald oversaw major changes in UK's academic program and faculty culture as well as a physical transformation of the campus.

Albert D. Kirwan

Albert D. Kirwan, a soft-spoken, scholarly, former football coach now led UK as president on an interim basis.  He faced a local community which felt alienated from the growing university, a student culture becoming more vocal about their needs both academically and socially, and high expectations left behind by his predecessor.  He and Betty Kirwan brought much needed stability, if only temporary, to the campus as they opened up Maxwell Place, the president's home, to the community.

Kirwan assured the press that, "My goal is to keep the impetus going.  There will be no slacking off.  I intend to give students and faculty confidence that the show will still go on."  Speaking to a convocation of new students and their parents Kirwan estimated that he would be president for only several more months as a committee was already hard at work to select a permanent president. 

Kirwan spoke proudly of his predecessor accomplishments to grow the university and the community college system adding that, "Most notable of all we have recruited many new faculty who are young, vibrant, and dynamic."  Kirwan counseled the first year students that "they would have a major role in the shaping of their university, especially today in a time of increasing trends to violence and instability.

Kirwan served until August, 1969, guiding the university firmly and steadily through a difficult and unsettled time at UK.  At its September, 1969 meeting, the UK Board of Trustees retroactively named Albert D. "Ab" Kirwan the "Seventh President of the University of Kentucky."  Kirwan returned to his teaching and research and witnessed his successor's efforts to deal with growing student unrest including demonstrations following the Kent State shootings that closed the university.

Kirwan died November 30, 1971


Additional information can be found at:

Kentucky Kernel, August 27, 1968

Frank Mathias, Albert D. Kirwan (University Press of Kentucky, 1975)

Kirwan bio:  https://libraries.uky.edu/libpage.php?lweb_id=326&llib_id=13