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Dr. Ervin Retires After Forty Years
By Jadell M. Forman (Class of 1990)
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Dozens of students, faculty, and staff gathered just outside the lab to "celebrate his life and ministry," said emcee Dr. Thomson Mathew, dean of the school.
All around the Graduate Center 4th-floor pit, people ate cake and swapped stories about their time with this senior professor of Old Testament Studies. One student said class with him was "storytime on this kind of level," raising her hand to measure a place at the top of her brain, meaning he wove together history, context, and the ancient Old Testament topics into a living tapestry of faith. A staff member said that whenever he came by her desk, she hung on every word and "didn't want him to ever leave."
But Dr. Ervin isn't one for unnecessary lingering, being known as the first one to adjourn any given meeting he attended. At the retirement reception, Dr. Ralph Fagin, ORU's chief academic officer, said he'd try to finish his comments before Ervin moved to adjourn.
Leaving the classroom isn't as easy for Ervin. "It's difficult, after 40 years of teaching, to cease abruptly," he said, referring to a recent tumble that necessitated his retirement at age 91.
Throughout two days of festivities--a departmental luncheon and this open reception--faculty and staff attempted to honor him with words that did justice to his legacy. But how does one summarize Ervin's illustrious life in academia?
Numerically, he has five degrees and held five job titles at ORU over the course of four decades. Before moving to Tulsa, he pastored two churches in New Jersey, and took three years to decide to accept Oral Roberts' personal invitation to teach at ORU.
Historically, Ervin has been involved with the university since 1963, when he and Roberts discussed its founding and the baptism of the Holy Spirit, among other topics. In a recent letter, Chancellor Roberts thanked Ervin for his years of service and called him a "close, close friend."
Others called him mentor, father, grandfather, scholar, and professor. He repeatedly referred to himself in less glowing terms, such as "an old rat in a bar," and with a quiet pensiveness that recalled previous decades, "something of a fixture."
Gathered and poised to receive his parting words, the reception audience silently listened to his traditional yet insightful few. "We live in one of the most dangerous and opportune times," Ervin said. "You're called to witness and preach in that context. Pray, and pray without ceasing."
