Rick Kilroy

Dr. Kilroy is now Professor Emeritus at Coastal Carolina University. I was born in Miami Beach, Florida where my father was stationed with the U.S. Coast Guard. As with most military families we moved every 3-4 years, eventually ending up in Newport News, VA where my father retired and I graduated high school. It was there that I joined the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, thinking I was both a Christian and an athlete! After being discipled by my peers, I realized I did not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. During my senior year, I attended a David Wilkerson crusade where I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior. Throughout college at Santa Clara University in California and the University of Virginia, I was blessed to be discipled by staff leaders with Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, eventually leading small group Bible studies with both undergraduate and graduate students, attending IVCF’s Urbana missions conference and participating in their Student Training in Missions, serving as a short term missionary in Mexico. After college, I spent 23 years on active duty military service as an Army Intelligence and Latin America Foreign Area Officer. We were involved with Officers’ Christian Fellowship at many of our assignments in the United States and overseas. My wife Lori and I shared in ministry at churches and military chapels, leading small groups, teaching Sunday School, and leading high school and junior high youth groups. We considered ourselves in a “tent-making” ministry since the military allowed us to serve Christ in the United States and abroad, supporting missionaries and churches in those countries we lived in. Once we retired from the military, we followed God’s calling to higher education as our new mission field at colleges in Virginia, North Carolina, and now in South Carolina. I have been blessed to be married to my wife Lori of 38 years who has been my partner in life and in ministry. We share a passion for missions and outreach ministry in our local communities. We have four daughters and one granddaughter. Three of my daughters have pursued careers similar to mine in education, intelligence and military service: one is a public school teacher in Greenville, NC; one is an intelligence analyst in Washington, D.C.; and one is serving in the U.S. Coast Guard in Portsmouth, VA.

My Life

Favorite Quote

"For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead," Thomas Jefferson

Friends describe me

Uncompromising when it comes to integrity and honesty issues

My hobbies

UVA Sports; Yard work; Travel; Reading

Fantasy dinner guests

Thomas Jefferson; Apostle Peter; Bart Starr

Best advice I ever received

When considering leaving the military early in my career, a Christian friend said that the military was my mission field and I should not leave until God called me out.

My undergrad alma mater

Santa Clara University, California

My worst subject in school

Dendrology Lab - why I am not a forest ranger today

In college I drove

1974 Toyota Corolla

If I weren't a professor, I would

Be running a yard service - I love cutting grass!

Favorite books

My Utmost for His Highest (Oswald Chambers); Politics Among Nations (Hans Morgenthau); Anything by John Grisham

Favorite movies

The Quite Man; Ferris Bueller's Day Off; It's a Wonderful Life; Remember the Titans

Favorite city

Charlottesville, VA

Favorite coffee

I prefer tea

Nobody knows I

Cry every time I watch It's a Wonderful Life or sad sports movies

My latest accomplishment

Refinished a dining room table my wife has been after me to do for years.

Current Research

I have two co-authored books coming out in 2020-2021; one is an Introductory text on Intelligence Studies and the other is a translated text of an earlier book written on Regional Security in North America (published in Mexico in Spanish).