Editor’s Note: Robert F. Darden III, better informally known as “Bob,” has impacted the lives of so many. He’s been a teacher, editor, and advisor from his office in the Castellaw Communications Center to countless students, inevitably shaping the mass media, movie, television, book, and video game industries with the successes of those Baylor graduates. Now, Darden is in the greatest adventure of his life: retirement. As Baylor Line’s longest-serving contributor, it’s our privilege to partner with him to tell the profound stories only someone with his experience, skill, and wit can. We will soon begin publishing a regular column by Darden on the Forgotten and Misunderstood Baylor Grads. But first, we thought it fitting to tell the story of our greatest storyteller himself.
In May 2023, the most awarded professor in Baylor’s history retired. A year later, he’s working more than ever.
Reflecting on his time at Baylor, Robert Darden (’76), master teacher and emeritus professor of journalism, public relations, and new media, has not only left an impact on the university at large but also on the thousands of students who walked into his classrooms for over 30 years.
Having had such gifted professors when he attended Baylor in the 1970s, Darden said it was these passionate and informed mentors who he tried to emulate in his classroom, as he desired to carry on their legacy.
“They wove stories, and they convinced us of the importance of what they’re saying through the force of their personalities and passion,” said Darden.
When given the opportunity to teach the ominous JOU 1303: Introduction to Mass Communication class in Baylor’s journalism department — often a young Bear’s first taste of communications at Baylor — Darden said this challenged him to work on his presentation skills.
“How do you keep 287 kids off their phones in a dark room? You have to be more interesting and more compelling than their phones,” said Darden.
Once he realized he wanted to model his teaching after all the professors who came before and inspired him, Darden said he was both a better and happier teacher because he knew he was delivering the information in a way that was useful and entertaining.
“The realization that content’s great, knowledge is great, but in the year after the rise of the Internet and everything else, you yourself have to be a compelling presenter,” said Darden. “And I realized I knew that all along because that’s what I had at Baylor back in the early ’70s.”
If he could go back and have a conversation with himself in 1999, when he was invited to become a full-time professor in English, he said he would tell himself about the “wild roller coaster of a ride” he was about to go on.
“You’re going to have great thrills and great sadnesses along the way. You’re going to meet and teach extraordinary students, and it’s all going to come out all right in the end, and it’s going to be okay,” said Darden. “You don’t need to be this fearful, that God’s hand is on all this; you were placed here for this moment.”
Although he impacted many people he encountered at Baylor, some have been transformed by Darden more than others.
“Bob Darden, unequivocally, is somebody who has impacted my life in unquantifiable and indescribable ways,” said Baylor Line Foundation CEO Jonathon Platt (‘16, MA ‘19).
From being advised to take Darden’s Introduction to Mass Communication class to switching majors in order to pursue his passion for writing and later becoming Darden’s teaching assistant, Platt has walked alongside Darden through many seasons of life and can testify to the realness and the authenticity of the person he is. Platt said he has an awe and a gratitude for the affirming friend Darden has been to him, even from the earliest days.
“The students who get to experience Bob up close and personal, in my very firm opinion, are the luckiest students of Baylor,” said Platt. “Bob Darden absolutely represents not only the soul and the best of, but the conscience of Baylor.”
Platt said he admires how Darden takes on causes that are bigger than one person can take on, while never getting lost in his ego.
“Bob has really taught me to think about the things that matter … and always making sure that you keep that priority,” he said.
Platt said he wants to emulate the way Bob cares about students, the way Bob cares about the future, and the way Bob will stand up for the right causes.
“He is an oak tree in his values, with roots stretching both deep and wide,” said Platt.
Darden said he considers anyone who takes one of his classes to always be one of his students (or “my kids,” as he calls them), simply because they were placed in his care. He said he continues to triumph in their victories and be proud of their successes, no matter where life takes them.
One such former student, Derek Haas (‘91, MA ‘95), had Darden as a screenwriting professor and now lives in Los Angeles, working in film and television.
“What I love is that he was such a great professor when I was there and taught screenwriting class when I barely even knew what a screenplay was,” said Haas.
Little did Haas know that this singular class would be the start of a long-lasting friendship.
“He taught a class where we looked at some really great films, some films I hadn’t seen before or even knew existed, and then read the screenplays alongside watching these films,” said Haas. “And then, because Darden is Darden, we’ve stayed friends for 25 years now.”
Haas attributes not only the start of his career but also pieces of his character to Darden.
“I came out to Hollywood with a few screenplays in my hands that were way better than anything I would have done had I not taken that class. So, in a lot of ways, I just wouldn’t have had a career if it weren’t for Bob,” said Haas. “And I think also, just as a man, he taught me that you can just [have] kindness, empathy, creativity, knowledge — all of the things that you want to pursue in your life were modeled by Bob in the classroom and outside of the classroom.”
Darden’s legacy will live on in the film and television industries thanks to Haas and his colleague Michael Brandt’s tradition.
“Whenever we have a new project, usually because we write action or crime things, there’s a character [that] dies and we always name the first character to die Darden,” said Haas. “That’s something that we’ll continue as long as I get to keep making television shows.”
Both seeing the impact on other students and testifying to it himself, Platt said Bob stirs the souls of every student, no matter where they end up in life.
“Bob has encouraged students who made huge careers and accomplishments out of it, and he also gets emails from students who are doing the quiet work of the Lord on the daily basis and who do not want the acclaim,” said Platt. “Neither is better than the other, but both are emblematic of what we should be investing in at Baylor through faculty like Bob Darden.”
Darden has invested in the university with the Black Gospel Music Preservation Project, which he names as one of the most memorable and rewarding things he has been a part of at Baylor. It is now the world’s largest initiative to acquire, identify, preserve, digitize, and catalog America’s fast-fading legacy of Black gospel music.
“The Black gospel music, being part of the new National Museum of African American History and Culture, was something the whole campus celebrated, and they have been celebrating it ever since, and I’ve gotten incredible support from faculty, staff, and administration,” said Darden. “I love that they have recognized the value of something that was so important to a culture.”
Darden said it brings him joy every day that a Christian university, despite its many flaws, would be the place where this would be preserved.
Others at Baylor said they admire the way Darden demonstrates what it looks like not to be afraid, and to wholeheartedly pursue one’s goals, in his case with the Black Gospel Music Preservation Project.
“If he sees something he’s not afraid, no matter how big it is. He’s not afraid to go for it. I mean, whoever thought that we would have the Black gospel project at Baylor University? But he saw that would be a possibility, and he went for it,” said Dr. Mia Moody-Ramirez, department chair and professor of journalism, public relations, and new media.
Moody-Ramirez said she admires the impact the Black Gospel Music Preservation Project left on Baylor’s campus and in Washington D.C.
“He has actually made a tremendous difference in fashioning that Black gospel project, and not only do we have it here at the Baylor University Moody Library, but it is also featured in Washington D.C. at the African American Museum of Art and Culture,” said Moody-Ramirez. “So that just tells you the tremendous impact that he has had not only here locally, but on society in general.”
While she was on her tenure track at Baylor, Darden served as Moody-Ramirez’s mentor. She said that being in the office next door to him gave her ample opportunity to soak up the encouraging advice he gave her.
“He was always a friendly face and someone who had an open door and who was willing to offer advice,” said Moody-Ramirez.
Moody-Ramirez said that by being a role model that she can follow, Darden has impacted her life in substantial ways.
“He’s impacted my life for the better just by being an example in the life that he leads and striving for excellence in everything that he does, from the Black Gospel Project to the books that he writes, to teaching, to helping students, and to helping others around him,” said Moody-Ramirez. “No matter what he does, he always strives for excellence, and I think that’s a good example for others.”
His excellence has been demonstrated by the plethora of awards he has received from the university and beyond, including the Outstanding Teacher in the College of Arts & Sciences award, the Cornelia Marschall Smith Award for Outstanding Professor at Baylor University, the Diversity Award with the Black Gospel Music Preservation Program, Distinguished Alumni of Baylor University by Baylor Line Foundation, being selected by the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation as a Piper Professor for the State of Texas, and being named a master teacher and emeritus professor of journalism, public relations, and new media in 2021.
Darden said he is grateful for the generosity of his colleagues and the Baylor administration in honoring him with these esteemed awards. While he cherished every minute at Baylor, Darden said he began to realize that season of his life was coming to an end a few years ago. Darden said he wants to be remembered not for his academic achievements but for his modeling of what he learned at Baylor in the early 1970s and loving the “kids” who God placed in front of him.
In the past year, Darden has finished co-writing a book on gospel singer Andraé Crouch and is awaiting edits and revisions for it. After writing 150,000 words for the book and spending several months tracking down licenses and permissions for photos and lyrics, Darden said he hopes this book will also be a part of his legacy. When the book is completed, Darden plans to return to writing more novels.
“I hope that will be part of my legacy—that I celebrated a really pivotal artist that most people don’t realize is the father of most of what we call gospel and praise and worship music today,” said Darden.
Darden has also recently worked as a consultant for the PBS documentary series “GOSPEL” hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. The series used his book “People Get Ready!: A New History of Black Gospel” as an outline. He also writes a monthly history column for Wacoan and is starting to work on another column for the Baylor Line Foundation about Baylor-specific history.
“When we speak of Bob Darden’s accomplishments and all of the books with his name on the spine and all of the awards that he has rightfully won and deservedly earned, we’re not even scratching the surface of how Bob has bettered the world,” said Platt.
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Featured image by Curtis W. Callaway
