Don Kirkland, retired editor and president of The Baptist Courier, has been named editor emeritus of the state Baptist paper he served for nearly four decades.
At their spring meeting March 1, Courier trustees voted unanimously to bestow the honor upon Kirkland, who joined the Courier staff in 1974 and was elected editor in 1996.
KirklandBrad Bardin, pastor of Williamston First Baptist Church and chairman of the Courier’s board, said trustees wanted to express their gratitude to Kirkland for his many years of ministry to the paper.
“But it is not just the duration of his ministry to The Baptist Courier that we honor,” said Bardin. “Rather, it is the way that he showed Christian leadership and set an example for the Courier staff and for Baptists in South Carolina in how to carry out Christian ministry. We honor his passion for God’s calling in his life and his faithfulness in fulfilling that calling.”
Rudy Gray, who succeeded Kirkland as editor and whose friendship with his predecessor spans 42 years, said Kirkland “has been so kind and helpful to me in making the transition to editor.”
“He is a kind and caring man who continues to be a servant of Christ,” Gray said. “I am so thankful that our board unanimously chose to express their apprciation to Don in this way.”
Kirkland joined the paper’s editorial staff in 1974 as assistant editor and was named associate editor in 1983. He succeeded John Roberts as the Courier’s 10th editor on March 1, 1996.
The son of a Baptist pastor, Kirkland was born in Columbia and spent most of his boyhood in Lancaster. He is a graduate of Anderson College (now Anderson University), the University of South Carolina and Erskine Theological Seminary, where he earned a master of arts in Christian education. He was awarded an honorary doctor of letters degree by Charleston Southern University.
Kirkland, 69, is a member of Earle Street Baptist Church in Greenville, where he was licensed to the ministry, and he is a former president of the Association of State Baptist Papers of the Southern Baptist Convention.
He and his wife Linda, a teacher at Riverside High School, have two children and four grandchildren.
Since his retirement at the end of 2012, Kirkland has been volunteering as a Bible study teacher at the Greenville Rescue Mission.