MEMORABLE PROFESSORS: DR. WILLIAM CARNACE "PROF" RIBBLE

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"NICE TRY!"
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("MIL'S PLACE" has been devoted partly to remembering and extolling worthy  teachers, mentors, and people who have influenced our lives in a very positive way. Continuing this effort, this post is about one of my all-time favorite people---Dr. W.C. "Prof" Ribble.)

Avuncular...yes, definitely avuncular.  That word describes him "to a tee!" Dr. Ribble, always to all his students and friends, known simply as "Prof," was born November 8, 1898. I do not know the place of his birth. He attended Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene, Texas, and completed his graduate work at the University of Texas, Austin. He became a professor at Hardin-Simmons in the early twenties.

Having relatives and roots in New Mexico, he through the years attended various New Mexico Baptist meetings and conventions, as a kind of good-will ambassador for HSU.  Every summer found Prof at Inlow Youth Camp, a church camp located up in the Manzano Mountains just west of Tajique; there he soon, with his friendly, open, down-to-earth way, became loved by all the "kids." I met him there in 1947. One morning I sneaked a photo of him shaving outdoors in front of his very rustic cabin, mirror hanging on the log wall. Facilities were scarce there then.

Prof had a job at the camp; he gave  a synopsis of the news or other daily world events---at the evening campfire. Thus when the N. Koreans invaded S. Korea, we were at a Young People's Camp and were lucky to have Prof keeping us posted!

He once met with several of us in Clovis at a meeting of some kind and helped us get set to enroll in Hardin-Simmons in the fall of 1951. I was in several of his Economics classes, having a minor in that subject. He was a friendly, informal, and droll, lecturer, loved by all.

But make no mistake: his exams were tough. They were serious exams, designed to find out if you'd learned your subject! No "true-false" questions, where if you knew a bunch of them, you could "50%" the rest and make it, etc. No, he'd give you FIVE essay-type questions, and you had to know the answers. You either did or you didn't---as I set out to disprove one exam
day.

You see, he'd ask on an exam, maybe: “Give a thorough discussion of the life of Malthus and the Malthusian Theory of Population.” That was several pages, right there. With five of his questions you could fill an exam Blue Book, or two.

I did okay with Malthus but in one of the big exams, question number five was a total loss-- I drew an absolute blank! Being a somewhat clever (??) young man, I threw the mental dice and reasoned: "He probably has a grader who'd like to get on with the grading, and when the grader sees questions one, two, three, and four are correct---wanting to get on with it--- he'll see my answer to question five and simply say to himself---"this guy is a clear cut A--next paper!" So, rather than leave a blank spot for question number five, and get a sure RED X, I  wrote several pages of something unrelated that we'd studied and hoped the grader wouldn't read it thoroughly.

ALAS! I WAS WRONG! Drat the luck!! PROF HIMSELF was the GRADER! And he read every answer!  He read my several pages of "something," and put a big RED X beside the answer, and wrote "NICE TRY!" I got a "C," and still have the Blue Book to back up my story!

Dr. Ribble left the classroom in the late 50's and  accepted a position with the New Mexico Baptist Foundation. In 1961 I accepted a position with the Baptist Convention of New Mexico, directing the Church Music Department. We worked for many years together, Prof and I, attending meetings, making trips together, and coffee breaks there in our fellowship room. When his parents passed away in the sixties, I sang for one or both their services.

Prof continued to visit and help at Inlow Youth Camp---I saw to that, for when we started the annual Youth Music at Inlow in 1962, I invited him to attend every year! When he passed away on April 26, 1988, his wife gave back to me for a keepsake---a little inscribed New Testament we had given Prof one year in the sixties as a token of appreciation for his camp work.

Of all the people I've ever known, PROF RIBBLE was one of the dearest...and one of my FAVORITES. How many people would agree! I wish he were still around to say to me:  "NICE TRY!"

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BY MIL
7/27/12



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