In this season of his life, it is time to move on

After 25 years at Elon, Chaplain McBride celebrates his retirement

The tears inside Whitley Auditorium matched the drizzling rain outside Sunday afternoon. The celebration of Chaplain Richard McBride's retirement brought an entirely different feeling to the auditorium usually marked with the divine sounds of the organ at its forefront. It was one of sorrow, celebration, reflection and commemoration.

McBride came to Elon in August 1984 as chaplain and coordinator of personal counseling. But 25 years later, he is surrendering the name "Chaplain McBride."

President Leo Lambert said it was a ceremony to fully release McBride from his duties.

"While another man or woman will take up your mantle of responsibility," Lambert said, "you and Wendy (McBride's wife) will certainly remain cherished friends, keepers of Elon's values and present in the life of the university."

As Lambert tells each new class of freshmen at New Student Convocation in the fall, they may leave Elon, but Elon never leaves them. The case is the same with McBride and his wife.

"To begin your new role, it seems to me that you need a new title," Lambert said. "And so, I confer upon you this afternoon, the title ‘chaplain emeritus.'"

In this role, McBride is "to love and to support your successor, to continue to love the university unfailingly, to continue to experience university life, to keep our institutional memory and to remain a strong link in the chain."

Susan Klopman, vice president of admissions and financial planning, calls McBride "one of the most relevant, historically significant leaders at Elon."

He is the creator of many traditions and programs that remain at Elon today including Habitat for Humanity, Elon Volunteers!, the Turning 21 Dinner, the Life Stories class and Hometown Heroes.

He has dedicated a number of buildings on campus such as McMichael, Belk, Rhodes Stadium, the Academic Pavilions, Moseley and others. When he finally got to dedicate his own home, the Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life, his wife told him that he always prays for others, but now it was finally time to pray for himself.

Junior Shane Morris works with McBride in the Truitt Center and has benefitted from several of the programs he has set up, especially EV! and Habitat.

"Chaplain McBride brings a sense of calmness and serenity to the office," Morris said. "It's unique in a way that I don't know if anybody else can bring that in the way he does."

Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven."

In the Service of Celebration, which honored McBride on his retirement as university chaplain, the seasons of his life as chaplain were celebrated before he was officially released through the litany of transition and vows of release.

Spring

"The alert ones in the audience are already wondering: ‘That guy can hardly get out of his chair, what could he possibly say or remember what Richard McBride saw?'"

Ed Christman began his dedication by making everyone laugh, just as he said McBride taught him.

Something that no one will ever forget about McBride is that "he taught us how to laugh, he can laugh at himself," Christman said. "What he brought to the table was a freedom to be who he was: to laugh, to cry, to raise questions, to say to his colleagues and to me, we gotta have a coffee house."

When no one else had the imagination to create something out of nothing, McBride found a place to fit a much-needed social and reflective space, a coffee house.

Christman was a mentor to McBride during his time at Wake Forest and someone who named McBride in his role when he would ask every evening, "Well, chaplain, how was your day?"

"Whether his heart was hurting or whether his brain was over-filled, or whatever, you could always count on him to see things as they really were and speak the truth to you softly," Christman said. "That's a gift that not very many people have."

Summer

"During the summer of his life, Richard McBride defined the soul of Elon University," said President Emeritus Fred Young.

McBride was the right person to lead Elon in the right direction. His service learning projects and programs are crucial to the institutional flagship program, Elon Experiences.

"Richard is able to counsel without being confrontational or judgmental," Young said. "His intellectual orientation is evident and greatly appreciated in an academic community. His ecumenical approach encourages staff and students. We can and do depend on him in times of joy and tragedy, both personal and institutional."

His concise and profound words before, during and after public gatherings at Elon have the ability to reach and enrich lives.

"Richard, your legacy is already in the hearts and minds of those who have passed through Elon for the past 25 years," Young said.

"The spirit, atmosphere and programs that were created through your leadership will enrich the lives of tens of thousands of future Elon students, faculty and staff.

"In the summer of your life, you defined the soul of Elon University and you defined it exceedingly well."

Fall

"Only for Richard" would Carolyn Nelson, director of design, stand up on stage to speak.

Every fall, Nelson packs up her dog and camera, and heads to Cedarock Park. She spends an afternoon at the park seeking new inspiration for her art, but she always ends up by the same little creek with big boulders and pools of still waters.

It is there that she finds "layers upon layers to watch and absorb" that leave her with a sense of all the same things McBride leaves upon those he meets: inspiration, insight, reflection and enlightenment.

"I don't know if it's sacrilegious to call a prayer art or poetry, but they are," Nelson said. "His eloquent words and plain truths speak to the heart, soul and intellect in equal measure. Prayers are spoken to God, of course, but I always feel like they're spoken just for me."

During convocations, Nelson said she looks forward to McBride's prayers just as much as the speakers themselves. But she remembers the prayers longer.

"He does, in fact, lead us to still waters," she said. "And just when you think you have found a clear reflection, there is a ripple and he rearranges the colors in a whole new light, and so it is with Richard. Still water. Steady light, bright light. A blessing to this university and a blessing to each of us."

Winter

"In springtime, learn. In harvest, teach. In winter, enjoy. Richard is entering the winter season of his life," said Smith Jackson, vice president and dean of student life.

Winter is a time for McBride to finally reflect, restore and become very busy doing those things he most enjoys.

McBride is building a room behind his house that will be a kind of secret sanctuary, Jackson said.

"Surprise, Wendy. It's not a secret anymore," he said.

The room will be a place for McBride to read, write and pursue photography. Jackson said McBride and his wife would now have time to travel the world.

Jackson only requests that McBride jots down some notes so we can still listen in on his journey.

Winter is also a time for McBride to "prepare for yet another spring," this time to travel the world and visit his grandchildren.

"Richard, you will always be a part of Elon," Jackson said. "Your role is just changing a bit. Wherever you are, with us will be your gentle and inquisitive spirit, your warmth and openness to others and your constant reminder that the real gorge of discovery exists not in seeking new lands but in seeing with new eyes in the present."

One of the greatest lessons McBride has taught members of the Elon community is to "be greater than ourselves," Jackson said.

The standing ovation McBride received at the end of his Service of Celebration was not the kind where a few initiate the rise and others slowly trickle upward. This was the rare kind that seems initiated by an outside force, one where every member of the audience rises simultaneously with a tear in the corner of his eye and a smile on his face.

Klopman summed up McBride's 25 years at Elon in four words:
"Richard, you are Elon."