Frederick “Jay” Neikirk, PhD, professor of political science and department chair, is retiring after 34 years of service at Geneva College.

His dedication has impacted thousands of students as he has faithfully sought not only to teach knowledge within his discipline, but to guide students in wise thinking about government, politics, and their intersection with God’s word and the Christian faith. Best known for teaching Great Issues in Politics (“Poli Sci 352”), the capstone course of the liberal arts core at Geneva, Neikirk has also been deeply involved in an administrative capacity at the College. In all things, he has attempted to keep at the forefront the idea of obedient stewardship to the call that God has placed on him and on Geneva College as an institution.

Neikirk earned both his bachelor’s degree in history and political science and his master’s degree in political science from the University of Delaware. Previously unaware of the existence of political science as a discipline, he took Introduction to American Government on a whim as a freshman.

“My plan going into college was that I was going to be an attorney,” he says. “But I found that I enjoyed teaching, and if what I wanted to do was help people, maybe I could do it as well or better by teaching. At the end of my undergraduate years, I was trying to figure out what to do, so I thought, ‘I’ll do a master’s and see what happens.’ That worked well, so I thought, ‘I’ll do a PhD and see what happens…’ It was all very carefully planned, you can see.”

Neikirk earned his PhD from the University of Illinois, focusing on American Government. After his coursework was complete, while moving his family to Pennsylvania for a new job, their U-Haul truck was stolen overnight. His books and progress on his dissertation — although fortunately not his interview notes — were gone for good.

“When U-Haul says ‘An Adventure in Moving’ they mean it,” he grins. Although the truck was eventually found and some belongings salvaged, Neikirk’s wardrobe for his new job was gone. “I showed up at my first job with two pairs of cut-off shorts, work boots, and a couple of t-shirts. I walked into my department chair’s office and he asked how he could help me. I said, ‘I’m your new professor.’”

Teaching Political Thought

From those comically unfortunate beginnings came a fruitful and lengthy teaching career. Neikirk had already been teaching for a dozen years when he received a letter inquiring about potential candidates to fill the place of Geneva College’s retiring political science faculty member David Carson, PhD. Neikirk joined the faculty of Geneva College in 1992.

“To this day, I can’t really tell you why I didn’t just throw the letter away, except God’s good providence. I was becoming more convinced that my faith had something to do with what I was teaching, and the job Geneva offered me was attractive because I could really apply my faith to what I was doing. I appreciated the robust core, the idea of 352, and the Foundational Concepts. Seeing those develop over the years and being able to participate in that has been one of the biggest things that has made me want to stay and confirms my being here.”

Neikirk sees Geneva’s Foundational Concepts of Christian Education as extremely crucial in understanding the College’s identity as an institution. He has diligently pursued the question of what it means to live with Christ as King in every sphere of life, both in his own classes and administrative roles.

Anyone who has had Neikirk as a professor knows that he takes this challenge seriously, pushing students with high standards, cold calls, and outlandish examples that stick with them long after graduation. It’s in these moments that Neikirk guides students into thinking about the values that necessarily underpin government and politics, and that shape their daily lives. For him, it is fulfilling to have students and returning alumni who show that the content of Geneva’s core and of 352 truly influenced them.

“I hope that when students from the last 30-some years come back, they say that they really do understand how the things they’ve learned apply to the way they think about the world and their approach not only to politics but to life generally. The biggest reward for me is seeing students go on and be faithful in whatever God has called them to, whether it’s being a husband, a wife, part of a church, a pastor, an elder, a parent. It’s the application of what we’re learning to all of life that is success.”

In this way, Neikirk demonstrates care for the growth and success of students even beyond the classroom. It is not surprising that his favorite spots on campus are classrooms filled with memories of teaching students who were particularly willing and motivated to learn. Although the political science major at Geneva has always been relatively small, Neikirk is grateful for students from many disciplines who have taken Great Issues in Politics seriously.

“One really nice surprise was how many students from outside the political science realm really engaged and were willing to interact. That’s made the job a lot easier than it might have been. The students in general have been incredibly generous.”

With Christ as King and Under Scripture

In addition to teaching, Neikirk has served at various times throughout his career as chair of the Faculty Senate; faculty representative; institutional research officer; chief budget and finance officer; and head of the Department of Political Science, History, and Sociology. Here too, Neikirk has supported the mission of the College in the full integration of faith and learning.

The six core values of Geneva are preceded with a short preamble, “With Christ as King and under Scripture,” which provides the reasoning behind and practical guidance for carrying out those values. During the Last Lecture, in honor of his retirement, Provost Melinda Stephens, PhD, recounted a memory of a Cabinet meeting in which the core values of the College were determined. She recalls, “Dr. Neikirk mentioned that something was missing — something needed to frame the entire discussion we were having. That’s where the preamble came from, because Dr. Neikirk said that’s where we needed to start.”

In helping to strengthen the core, guiding strategic budget changes, and participating in laying a base for assessment measures at the College, Neikirk has modeled the good stewardship he advises faculty to pursue. “Recognize that we [faculty and administrators] hold a trust here. Certainly a trust from God, but a trust from the past and the people who went before us, and from the church that is the sponsoring denomination.”

Between his administrative and teaching duties, and even with great help from student assistants whom he remembers with warm gratitude, Neikirk has often spent long hours at the College. He looks forward to spending more time with family in retirement, especially his wife and their grandchildren. Nevertheless, he will miss teaching and interacting with students.

In leaving the students he has taught over the years, and to those who come next, Neikirk leaves a final word: “One of the problems in so much discourse today is we tend to put the premium on what we can empirically verify. We think that has the highest truth claim. It doesn’t. The highest truth claim rests with what God has revealed in Scripture, and we need to build on that, and not let the world convince us that the rational, the observable, is the only thing that we can bring into the public square.”

Neikirk has practiced what he teaches. For decades, he has brought a recognition that Christ is sovereign over all things into the public square, at Geneva College and beyond. Multiple generations of students have been encouraged and challenged to do the same.

To honor Neikirk’s distinguished career and years of service to the College, he has been awarded the status of emeritus faculty.