“When grey fibrous tentacles of moss, cascading over oak trees of the bayou merge with red, gluey clay of hills of snow and cold, lives of profound love, passion, and care for neighbor, family, and God produce stories of joy, power, and hope. When a young man leaves his home to go south for six weeks, as part of a government program, drinks the water, and stays for a lifetime, we have to ask why. When that same young man serves for twenty-seven years on a police force without ever having to fire his gun in the line of duty, we are amazed. When asked the philosophy of his life and he says, “God provides,” we marvel at this reverent soul who took not the vocation of minister, but lived as if he had.
When this man comes in beautiful ebony skin with a heart as big as gold, a spirit as fierce as a volcano, and a wisdom to rival that of Solomon, we want to know who he is. When we learn he was born in 1912, in Jim Crow Louisiana, and became the first African American Deputy Sheriff in the state of Louisiana since reconstruction, we glimpse a phenomenal life worth learning about: Rudolph Valentino Kirk (1912-1983) ~ a gentle giant, a marvelous man, phenomenal husband and father, a gift; a trailblazer; a heart the size of Mt. Kilimanjaro.”
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