Dr. Clyde S. Kilby
Though my mother remembered him as one of her favorite professors, it was not until my sister, Marilee, began studying with Dr. Kilby, bringing Narnia into our home, that I met him and his wife, Martha, probably around my parents' dining room table. After college I moved to Wheaton to work at Tyndale House Publishers and had an apartment just a few blocks from Dr. and Mrs. Kilby. I was fond of walking over to sit amongst his prized day lily collection, imagining eldil, or sharing a meal with Peter Kilby, the parakeet, sitting on the doctor's thin hair, or listening to him talk in his upstairs back porch library/study. Oh, the magic! Those who also had the blessing of these things will know of what I speak.
After studying closely with portrait painter, John Howard Sanden, I set out, in 1982, to create six major portraits for use in building commission work. It was Dr. Kilby himself who helped teach me imago Dei and I wanted very much for my portrait work to tell something about the person I was painting. So I imagined that a portrait of him would show us a little about C. S. Lewis.
He was gracious to let me pursue my idea with him, and these many years later I can't remember why I was so enchanted with the idea of his familiar lounging robe. That Till We Have Faces was his favorite work by Lewis made it an obvious choice for him to be holding.
Dr. Kilby and I had a photo session where I took an entire roll of photos, playing with light and composition. When I had chosen the final composition I stretched a canvas and penciled in the outlines. However, my painting career got interrupted with a little thing called marriage, and the unpainted canvas followed us around until my second child was born in September 1986. My baby daughter received a letter from Dr. Kilby, Columbus, Mississippi, welcoming her to the world—the world he left just days later. Now I really wanted to finish the portrait. Our mutual friend, Leanne Payne, agreed to commission its completion, and my husband took time to watch our children while I painted in our laundry room. Reflecting on his gifts and graces while I painted, Cal and I decided that if God should grant us another child, we would name that child "Kilby". Funnily enough (using one of Dr. Kilby's quaint expressions), our daughter Kilby was conceived around the time the final portrait was delivered, and as her life has blossomed we have seen in her similar literary gifts and the joyful sense of humor that we'd known in him.
