Darryl Jinkerson, Phd.

Dr. Darryl L. Jinkerson, associate professor of management at Abilene Christian University, died suddenly Friday, Oct. 12, 2012. He was 54.

A funeral honoring his life will be conducted Thursday, Oct. 18. at 2 p.m.at University Church of Christ. Family visitation is scheduled for 6-8 pm Wednesday at Piersall Funeral Directors, 733 Butternut St.

Jinkerson was born Jan. 21, 1958, in East St. Louis, Ill., a beginning that contributed to his lifelong love of St. Louis Cardinals baseball. The third of four children of LaVerne and Lee Jinkerson, he grew up in O’Fallon, Ill., where he graduated from high school before attending Harding University in Searcy, Ark. There he met fellow freshman Cindy Madden in the registration line. They married three years later on Aug. 11, 1979, before beginning their senior year together.

The couple lived in West Monroe, La., while Darryl earned a Master of Science degree in clinical psychology from Northeast Louisiana University and then in Carbondale, Ill., where he completed coursework for his Ph.D. in applied psychology from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 1987. He completed his dissertation while he was with Arthur Andersen LLP at its offices in St. Charles, Ill., serving as director of assessment and measurement. He also worked for three years for Service Companies in Roselle, Ill., as its vice president.

During their years in the Chicago area, the Jinkersons were active members of the West Chicago Church of Christ where he served as an elder. For 10 years he was president of the Rockford Christian Camp in Illinois. When the family moved to Texas the camp named a pavilion in his honor.
Jinkerson joined the ACU faculty in 2002. During his first year, he was honored as the Teacher of the Year in the Department of Management Sciences, later serving four years as department chair. He enjoyed the classroom and the daily interaction with students, helping them make real life connections to the business world. He relished finding new and innovative ways to teach lessons, using card games and packages of M&Ms to teach statistics, and movie clips to bring home points in management or development.

His prior teaching experience included two years as an adjunct professor of business at Judson College in Elgin, Ill., and eight as an adjunct professor of psychology at North Central College in Naperville.

At ACU, Jinkerson led the study abroad program for the College of Business Administration and had taken numerous groups of students for international studies in Honduras, China, Australia and England. In addition to his academic trips he had gone to Honduras several times with Mission Lazarus and Torch Missions, traveling with his daughters and building a house there in memory of his father who died in 2007.

He was a member of the University Assessment Committee, a Sam Walton Fellow serving as ACU’s Students in Free Enterprise chapter and served several terms on Faculty Senate.

His research interests in evaluation and measurement, performance improvement, and leadership selection models led to publications in several refereed journals and dozens of presentations at professional and academic conferences. Throughout his academic career he maintained an active consulting practice, serving national corporations, local non-profits and businesses, and municipalities in Illinois and Texas.

The Jinkersons were active members of University Church of Christ where he was an elder and led or served on several committees. He previously served as an elder of Highway 36 Church of Christ south of Abilene. He was a member of the board of directors at Abilene Christian Schools and led its CEO Selection Committee.

Darryl is survived by his wife Cindy; by three daughters, Whitney Olsen and her husband Eric of Corsicana, Rachel Goodman and husband Michael, and Amanda Carpenter and husband Pierce, and by one granddaughter London Olsen. He also is survived by his mother of O’Fallon, Ill.; by two brothers, Richard and his wife Karen of Lake in the Hills, Ill., and their three children, Perry and his wife Sylvia of Starkville, Miss., and their three children, and one sister Cheryl Hamm and her husband Wes of St. Louis and their two children.

In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that memorials be made Abilene Christian Schools, 2550 N. Judge Ely Blvd, Abilene, Texas 79601. Condolences may be offered to the family online at www.pbfuneraldirectors.com.