“It’s a beautiful day here at North Alabama. It’s very nice to see your very beautiful selves on this very beautiful day,” was the opening line for each of Larry Nelson’s courses during his 30-year tenure as a history professor.

Nelson died Tuesday, Jan. 14 after battling stage-four Glioblastoma brain cancer, which he was diagnosed with in May 2013.

“He was in his 30th year of teaching, and he impacted a lot of students during his time,” said Chris Maynard, chair of the Department of History. “By choice, he always had a heavy teaching load, particularly with freshmen courses. He always wanted to teach as many kids as he could.”

President William Cale delivered remarks at the funeral on behalf of the university, and he spoke of Nelson’s impact.

“Ask anyone at UNA to name our finest professors and with 100 percent certainty, Larry Nelson’s name comes forward,” Cale said. “Deep in Larry’s heart were equal measures for his passion — teaching — and caring for his students. The life of a great educator like Larry lives on not only through his family and friends, but through the students he has touched.”

Graduate student Clint Alley took Nelson’s “History of the South” course in 2007 as a graduate student. He had known Nelson for several years, and he said his future was challenged during a conversation one afternoon in Nelson’s office.

“He asked what my plans were after graduation,” Alley said. “I told him that I would be a high school teacher. He nodded his head and said, ‘Oh yes, we need good people in that field. But have you ever thought about teaching on the university level? You’ve got what it takes.’ I was flattered, humbled and confused at the same time. In his gentle way, he was telling me that I was selling myself short, and that I was capable of far greater things than I had planned.”

Challenging Alley was something Nelson did quite a bit of, he said.

“He was the first college professor to truly show me that he believed in me, and I knew that he was rooting for me,” Alley said. “He challenged me to think about history differently. He challenged me to set my sights higher. He challenged me to elevate my standards for research. And most of all he challenged me to achieve the potential that he saw in me.”

Nelson took a holistic approach to teaching, Maynard said.

“He really did believe in community,” Maynard said. “He believed in academics and doing well, but he also believed in helping the student succeed in life. And he didn’t see teaching as a job — it was a calling. His faith impacted the way he taught. He saw the opportunity to invest in students.”

Student Kayla Braidfoot’s college experience has been transformed because of Nelson’s teaching, she said.

“I went into my college career knowing that I had to take Dr. Nelson,” she said. “I didn’t know why, or what all the hype was about, but I knew I had to take him. Someone made the comment to me, ‘If you don’t have a Nelson class, you don’t have a true UNA experience.’ So, the first day of class, I went into (Bibb Graves Hall) room 314, sat at a desk beside Mrs. Verlie (Nelson) and waited for class to begin. My entire life changed in those 50 minutes. He was the most intelligent, respectful and compassionate man I have ever met. He was so on fire for history you couldn’t help but pay attention.”

Senior Amanda Daniel, one of Nelson’s advisees, said Nelson helped her plan for graduate school last year.

“He said, ‘I believe you can do great things! You can do anything you set your mind to,’” she said. “We were both looking forward to spring graduation, (and) I was hoping he’d be there to call out my name as I received my diploma.”

Nelson and his wife Verlie often opened their home to students, and student Lauren Hulsey said there is one particular gathering she will always remember.

“Dr. Nelson knew I wasn’t going to be able to spend my birthday with my family and I wasn’t excited about it, so he and Mrs. Verlie threw me an ‘edifying gathering’ at their house, complete with Verlie cake and a home cooked meal,” she said. “The only promise we had to make was that when we left we would be more enlightened and edified than when we came, which was no challenge.”

Not having time for someone was something Maynard said he never saw from Nelson.

“He’s been a mentor to me and good counsel,” Maynard said. “But that’s just the kind of person he was. He was an outstanding colleague, but a better friend.”

Having Nelson as a mentor made a difference in alumnus Will Riley’s life, he said.

“Dr. Nelson started out as an honorary initiate of ATO at UNA,” Riley said. “Despite his son being a Sigma Chi at UNA, he always connected really well with ATO. It really didn’t matter — he just loved Greek life.”

Riley and other members of the fraternity reached out to Nelson in 2009 and asked him to begin leading a Bible study at their fraternity house, he said.

“He focused the first couple of years on Biblical knowledge, but then moved to practical guidance and application,” Riley said.

The study group expanded, and what started out as Nelson leading four men each week turned into more than 70 students from across campus, Greek and non-Greek students alike, Riley said.

“I was honored to execute that with him,” he said. “And then the little things he did that made an impact — his Larry-isms, like ‘Less Larry, more Jesus,’ and if you were ever reading scripture with him, he made it very apparent that those weren’t his words. He would always start with, ‘Hear the word of the Lord.’ That’s the one thing that I will always remember and do, to hold to on to something from him.”

The impact Nelson had on his students lasts beyond graduation day, said alumnus Tyler Edgeworth.

“I will never forget Dr. Nelson calling out my name as I walked across the stage and the joy I felt when my mentor recognized me when I received my diploma for a B.S. degree in history and criminal justice,” Edgeworth said.

“What would Dr. Nelson do?” is the new question Braidfoot said she will ask herself throughout the rest of her life.

“His one class changed not only my entire outlook on history and education, but life as well,” she said.

Though he will miss him greatly, Alley said he is confident about the life Nelson lived.

“I can say with confidence that my own life is better for having known him, and I am thankful that while he was on this earth, I was given the chance to call him ‘teacher,’” Alley said.

Cale offered multiple anecdotes and memories of Nelson during his remarks at the funeral, but said — in the end — it all came down to love.

“At UNA he loved his students, he loved his colleagues and my goodness, he even loved the administration,” he said. “And we all loved him back.”