Queer Places:
University of Michigan, 500 S State St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, United States
Cornell University (Ivy League), 410 Thurston Ave, Ithaca, NY 14850
Tulane University, 6823 St Charles Ave, New Orleans, LA 70118, United States
Balfour Cemetery, 6569 Belle River Rd, China Township, MI 48054, United States

Dr. Richard Ray Kirk (November 20, 1877 - 1951) was an American poet, author, World War I veteran, and distinguished scholar of English literature whose career spanned several major American universities.

Born on November 20, 1877, in China Township, Michigan, to Frederick and Marguerite Kirk, he spent his early life in St. Clair County before pursuing higher education. As a dedicated alumnus of the University of Michigan, Kirk developed a lifelong connection to the institution, earning his degrees there and maintaining ties as a proud Wolverine throughout his academic journey. During World War I, Kirk answered the call to service as an American veteran before fully committing his life to higher education and literary work.

Throughout his academic career, Professor Kirk taught English literature across the country, holding faculty positions at Cornell University, the Georgia School of Technology, the University of Michigan, and eventually Tulane University in New Orleans. At Tulane, he established himself as a prominent figure in the English department, contributing significantly to the university's literary environment and writing epigrammatic poetry, short verse, and literary essays. During his time in New Orleans, Kirk engaged deeply with the city's rich artistic networks, earning recognition among local cultural circles, including connections within the Creole elite and the bohemian literary circles of the French Quarter.

Modern queer history research and archivist studies examining mid-20th-century Southern literary figures often highlight Kirk's social networks within New Orleans. During his tenure at Tulane, the French Quarter and surrounding university communities served as rare safe havens for LGBTQ intellectuals, writers, and artists living in the early-to-mid 1900s. Kirk's lifelong bachelorhood, his close inclusion in bohemian artistic circles that fostered early queer community building, and his personal papers preserved in archives have made his life a subject of interest for scholars documenting historically veiled LGBTQ academic networks in the American South.

After retiring from active university teaching, Kirk remained an active visitor to his home state of Michigan. He passed away at the age of 73 on June 6, 1951, at Bay View Hospital in Michigan. Following a funeral officiated by the pastor of the First Methodist Church, he was buried in Balfour Cemetery in Saint Clair, Michigan, survived by his extended family and leaving behind a legacy as a dedicated educator and poet.

In 1926 Pelican Bookshop Press, New Orleans, published "William Spratling and William Faulkner, Sherwood Anderson and Other Famous Creoles: A Gallery of Contemporary New Orleans", issued in 250 copies. The “Famous Creoles” (with ages in 1926) were

• Conrad Albrizio, 27, New York-born, serious artist, Spratling’s neighbor, Arts and Crafts Club stalwart
• Sherwood Anderson, 50, “Lion of the Latin Quarter,” eminence gris, generous to respectful younger writers (LGBTQ friendly)
• Marc Antony and Lucille Godchaux Antony, both 28, Love-match between heiress and lower-middle-class boy, local artists
• Hamilton “Ham” Basso, 22, Star-struck recent Tulane grad, aspiring writer, good dancer (LGBTQ friendly)
• Charles “Uncle Charlie” Bein, 35, Director of Arts and Crafts Club’s art school; lived with mother, sister, and aunt (GAY)
• Frans Blom, 33, Danish archeologist of Maya, Tulane professor, colorful resident of Quarter
• Roark Bradford, 30, Newspaperman, jokester, hit pay dirt with Negro dialect stories
• Nathaniel Cortlandt Curtis, 45, Tulane architecture professor, preservationist, recorded old buildings
• Albert Bledsoe Dinwiddie, 55, President of Tulane, Presbyterian
• Marian Draper, 20, Ziegfeld Follies alum, Tulane cheerleader, prize-winning architecture student
• Caroline “Carrie” Wogan Durieux, 30, Genuine Creole, talented artist living in Cuba and Mexico, painted by Rivera
• William “Bill” Faulkner, 29, Needs no introduction, but wrote the one to Famous Creoles (LGBTQ friendly)
• Flo Field, 50, French Quarter guide, ex-journalist, sometime playwright, single mother
• Louis Andrews Fischer, 25, Gender-bending Mardi Gras designer, named for her father (LGBTQ friendly)
• Meigs O. Frost, 44, Reporter’s reporter; lived in Quarter; covered crime, revolutions, and arts
• Samuel Louis “Sam” Gilmore, 27, Greenery-yallery poet and playwright, from prominent family (GAY)
• Moise Goldstein, 44, Versatile and successful architect, preservationist, active in Arts and Crafts Club
• Weeks Hall, 32, Master of and slave to Shadows-on-the-Teche plantation, painter, deeply strange (GAY)
• Ronald Hargrave, 44, Painter from Illinois formerly active in Quarter art scene, relocated to Majorca
• R. Emmet Kennedy, 49, Working-class Irish boy, collected and performed Negro songs and stories
• Grace King, 74, Grande dame of local color literature and no-fault history, salonnière
• Alberta Kinsey, 51, Quaker spinster, Quarter pioneer, indefatigable painter of courtyards
• Richard Ray Kirk, 49, Tulane English professor and poet, loyal Michigan Wolverine alumnus
• Oliver La Farge, 25, New England Brahmin, Tulane anthropologist and fiction-writer, liked a party
• Harold Levy, 32, Musician who ran family’s box factory, knew everybody, turned up everywhere
• Lillian Friend Marcus, 35, Young widow from wealthy family, angel and manager of Double Dealer (LGBTQ friendly)
• John “Jack” McClure, 33, Poet, newspaper columnist and reviewer, Double Dealer editor, bookshop owner
• Virginia Parker Nagle, 29, Promising artist, governor’s niece, Arts and Crafts Club teacher
• Louise Jonas “Mother” Nixon, 70, A founder of Le Petit Theatre and its president-for-life, well-connected widow
• William C. “Cicero” Odiorne, 45, Louche photographer, Famous Creoles’ Paris contact (GAY)
• Frederick “Freddie” Oechsner, 24, Recent Tulane graduate, ambitious cub reporter, amateur actor
• Genevieve “Jenny” Pitot, 25, Old-family Creole, classical pianist living in New York, party girl
• Lyle Saxon, 35, Journalist, raconteur, bon vivant, host, preservationist, bachelor (GAY)
• Helen Pitkin Schertz, 56, Clubwoman, civic activist, French Quarter guide, writer, harpist
• Natalie Scott, 36, Journalist, equestrian, real-estate investor, Junior Leaguer, social organizer (LGBTQ friendly)
• William “Bill” Spratling, 25, Famous Creoles illustrator, Tulane teacher, lynchpin of Quarter social life (GAY)
• Keith Temple, 27, Australian editorial cartoonist, artist, sometimes pretended to be a bishop
• Fanny Craig Ventadour, 29, Painter, Arts and Crafts Club regular, lately married and living in France
• Elizebeth Werlein, 39, Suffragette with colorful past, crusading preservationist, businessman’s widow
• Joseph Woodson “Pops” Whitesell, 50, Photographic jack-of-all-trades, French Quarter eccentric, inventor (GAY)
• Daniel “Dan” Whitney, 32, Arts and Crafts Club teacher, married (two) students, beauty pageant judge
• Ellsworth Woodward, 65, Artistic elder statesman, old-fashioned founder of Newcomb art department

References:

Dixie Bohemia: A French Quarter Circle in the 1920s (Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History) Paperback – September 8, 2014 by John Shelton Reed

Other references:

• St. Clair County Press / Local Michigan Newspapers (June 1951): Original obituary notice published in St. Clair, Michigan, detailing his birth on November 20, 1877, in China Township, parentage (Frederick and Marguerite Kirk), World War I military service, surviving family members, and burial details at Balfour Cemetery.
• Balfour Cemetery Records (Saint Clair, Michigan): Physical grave marker and interment records confirming his birth year (1877) and death year (1951).
• University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library: Michigan Union Records (1884–1996): Holds photographs and historical files documenting Richard R. Kirk’s involvement as an alumnus and officer.
• Michigan Historical Collections: Archival records covering his early academic association with the University of Michigan.
• Tulane University Special Collections & Archives: Departmental records, faculty rosters, and historical papers covering his long tenure as a Professor of English Literature in New Orleans.
• Cornell University & Georgia School of Technology Faculty Archives: Academic history registers tracking his teaching appointments prior to his time at Tulane.
• "An Introduction to the Study of Poetry" (1932): Co-authored by Richard Ray Kirk and Roger Philip McCutcheon; published by Edwards Brothers.
• "A Complete Course in English Composition" (1941): Co-authored with Frederick Hard and Harvey Lee Marcoux; published by Farrar & Rinehart.
• "A Tallow Dip" (1926): Published collection of short verse and epigrams by Richard Ray Kirk.
• "Campus Chimes": A collection of University of Michigan verse edited and compiled by Richard Ray Kirk.

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