Zink University

Round Table
Faculty
From I to WE
Contact Us
About Zink University

T he Zink University is a university without walls. Founded in 2000, it became a reality which grew out of a series of discussions held by two brothers in Pollywog Park in Manhattan Beach, California, in the middle of the 1980's. These brothers, one of whom had earned a Doctor of Philosophy Degree from the Jesuit University of Detroit Mercy in 1973, and the other who was at that time working on his Master's Degree in Philosophy at the University of Southern California, were asking themselves questions about the nature of higher education and its real relationship to life in the world at large. At the time, the younger of the two brothers was evaluating his career options and, as we all have occasion to do, was attempting to find his true mission in life.

Out of these discussions at a simple park bench held once a month for two or three hours for the better part of a year came certain insights about life and the nature of graduate schools. The brothers allowed as how some people who earned post graduate degrees squandered their educational gifts by using them for shallow and often meaningless, narcissistic goals. This would be their choice, of course, and acceptable if only to them but for this exception: they almost always ended up unhappy and unfulfilled. Often some of the "best and the brightest," bedecked with academic degrees from often famous and fully accredited universities, lived extremely unhappy, self-centered lives whose sad legacies featured broken marriages, alcoholism and drug abuse, and ethical breaches ending in embarrassment and personal or even public humiliation. These hardly became the Master Teachers and Life Masters their education and training led us to believe they would be.

Then the brothers allowed as how there were those remarkable individuals who seemed to learn from and surmount life's most critical challenges and, by their very behavior choices, consistent over time, had become Grand Masters at the Game of Life. These, often with little formal education or perhaps a single undergraduate degree, and not always from a world-famous university, lived lives of happiness and distinction. They became role models for many, many others because of their ethical, moral, and other-centered lives. They had found their true calling and life mission. They knew much about why God had given them the gift of life and often could, upon being asked so direct a question, articulate their life mission in a simple, profound sentence.

And so the brothers decided that perhaps one day they would found their own university, give it their own name, and award earned doctorates in the fields in which their graduates had worked for most of their lives. There would be no need for university accreditation. Zink University graduates already would have lived most of their lives and done so in the true service of others. These discussions helped inspire the younger brother to go on to Oxford University where he completed his own doctoral studies in Moral Philosophy in 1990.

At the dawn of the third millennium, the two brothers, now both Doctors of Philosophy, one in Neuro-psycholinguistics and one in Moral Philosophy, awarded Zink University's first Doctor of Philosophy Degree to Charles Roy Eitel (2000), and shortly after that, another one to Herschel Lawrence (Larry) Wilson (2000). Both men have lived remarkable lives of achievement in helping others to achieve. Both degrees were in Humane Letters since both Dr. Wilson and Dr. Eitel have written several powerful and life-changing books on helping others to achieve their potential. Soon other Zink University Doctorates followed. One to Dr. William Ghent Nance (2001) for his life's work in Nuclear Physics and Engineering, one to Dr. James Russell Whitman, III (2002), for his life's work in Business Administration, one to Dr. Noreen Elizabeth Saunders (2002) for her life's work in teaching World History to high school students, and one to Dr. Thomas Arthur Kardashian for remarkable achievements in the business and entertainment industries. All Zink University doctoral recipients are over the age of fifty and must be so in order to be eligible for this degree.

Because the word "Doctor" in Latin means "Great Teacher," all Zink University graduates are automatically admitted to the faculty of Zink University. They are charged with the responsibility of seeking out new candidates for this degree. At the time of the award, and this is an earned and not an "honorary" doctorate, the only one at the doctoral dinner who has no idea why he or she is there is the candidate.

The sheer beauty of the surprise is that all of the work for the degree has been completed, the doctoral committee already has met, the diploma has been signed, dated, and elegantly framed. A Zink University founder makes a short speech, everyone present at the table stands at the end of this speech and congratulates with warm and hearty applause the newest Zink University Doctor and member of the Faculty. It certainly is one of life's greatest pleasures to surprise with honor and gratitude someone who has been making wonderful things happen to and for other people for his or her entire life. Those who are life's givers often say that they have received far more than they themselves have given. The Zink University Doctorate honors the recipients by formalizing, in title, the work for others that the they have done, almost automatically, for all of their remarkable lives.

There are no fees for Zink University; tuition is non-existent. The founders themselves insist on bearing the costs associated with graduation dinners and the diplomas. Both founders, Dr. J. Zink and Dr. Jeffrey Zink, have exciting ideas for expanding the scope of the University. There are plans in the works for awarding Master's Degrees to graduates of the Zink University Round Table. This is a forum of serious students who are on the road to discovering themselves and their true purpose for being here now. Other ideas exist for encouraging those whose lives are lived in the strong service of others. For a life of true service is not the undertaking of the weak of heart or the self-centered personality.

The motto of Zink University is taken from Caesar's Gallic Commentaries:

© 2000-2008 Zink University