Gieger says goodbye to OC after 31 years

After 31 years with the Oklahoma Christian University family, Bible Professor Loren Gieger has decided to retire.

Gieger said his decision came due to his wife’s need to have him at home.

“I would never retire when everyone would want me to leave,” Gieger said. “I would retire when my fellow faculty and students would want me to stay, and that’s what I’m doing.”

Gieger said after he has class every day, it is hard to help students out because he has to return home immediately.

“Now I’m having to teach my class and then immediately come back home, and I don’t find that very satisfying because I can’t very well meet my students after class and things like that,” Gieger said.

In the past, Gieger has taught at other schools, including Rochester College.

“Before I came to Oklahoma Christian I was teaching at Michigan Christian College … now I think it is Rochester College,” Gieger said. “Before that I had served as a preacher. I still serve as a teacher at the [Memorial Road Church of Christ], I teach the early bird morning class.”

Gieger also serves at the Stroud Church of Christ and said he would continue to preach and teach classes both there and at Memorial Road.

Bible professor Kent Hartman said he is sad to see Gieger leave and will miss him and his experience that he brings to the Bible Department.

“I worked with Loren as visiting missionary, so I have known and worked with him for 12 or 13 years,” Hartman said. “He is always very kind to me and he and I have a good relationship, but I think he enjoys the students here and he enjoys being part of the bible faculty — its just kind of a great job I think.”

Hartman said Gieger’s has a dry humor but believes that’s part of why students love him.

“Loren works to try and get to know the students and find out about them,” Hartman said. “He just does a good job presenting good material in a way that I think is easy to listen to.”

Senior Christian Kincheloe said he had Gieger as a professor for Archeology of the New Testament in the spring of 2012.

“I liked him, he had photos of all the different archeology places that you can find in the Bible so you can learn about them,” Kincheloe said.  “All the photos are taken by him.”

Kincheloe said Gieger points out different things in the Bible and he tries to relate everything to different bible verses.

“I enjoyed learning from him because he would tell everything to us like it is a story, like every photo had a story,” Kincheloe said. “He would also tell us how he experienced it.”

Kincheloe said Gieger is someone that he could not forget because he was so knowledgeable about his subject.

“I am very sad to hear that he is retiring,” Kincheloe said. “I don’t think anyone is going to be able to replace him, I think he is an irreplaceable professor here on this campus because he has so much experience — because he has been almost anywhere and everywhere when you think of archeology of the Bible.”

Gieger said the staff at Oklahoma Christian has been the most professional and helpful staff to him throughout the years.

“I will miss my work,” Gieger said. “I feel that my students are my life. … I feel like I belong to them and I try to serve them in any way that I can. I try to do the best that I can, it may not be the best but it’s the best I can do.”

Gieger said that he appreciated Oklahoma Christian letting him serve and teach throughout the years.

“We will miss him,” Hartman said.