Less than a year ago, Charles Kinlaw sat in his home and talked to this scribe at length. His then-93-year-old brain didn’t show its age, and it didn’t matter that the memories he was recalling happened nearly three quarters of a century earlier; all the details were still there, down to who said what, which inning a play happened in and even whether he threw a fastball or a changeup in a key moment.

Those memories were of a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Kinlaw that happened way back in 1949. As a young man, he was part of the Wake Forest baseball team that advanced to the championship game of the College World Series, just the third one contested.

He reminisced with me for a story about his experience, written on the occasion of Wake Forest’s trip back to the CWS last year. We spent about an hour together, and I can truly say it is one of the favorite hours I have ever spent in this profession.

Kinlaw’s incredible life came to an end last Wednesday when he passed at age 94. While we didn’t necessarily have a relationship beyond that interview and a couple of other brief interactions since I came to The Robesonian, I felt a genuine sadness when I heard of Kinlaw’s passing.

Lumberton, and Robeson County, has lost not just one of its greatest athletes, but one of its greatest sportsmen. The depth of that statement goes far beyond his baseball career, even as pitching in the College World Series is the most noteworthy thing he achieved in the athletic realm. His obituary in Saturday’s edition of The Robesonian described him as a “stunningly prodigious athlete,” and by all accounts this is an accurate depiction.

Kinlaw attended Wake Forest from 1947-51, back when the campus was still in the town of Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, shortly before the university’s move to its present campus in Winston-Salem. He was a relief pitcher for the diamond Deacs, and allowed just one home run in four years, coming in that CWS championship game against Texas, though this was the only run he allowed in an outing of several innings; he was proud of the fact that this was the only home run allowed through his high school, American Legion and college baseball career.

Those experiences still seemed so fresh during our conversation last year; a “core memory” for him, as people closer to my age than his would say. This includes a trip to Notre Dame for a best-of-three regional series, where it rained for about five straight days before they could play, leaving Kinlaw and his teammates to explore the “beautiful campus”; the train ride to Wichita, where the CWS was to be held, and getting to play in a big stadium there, and even the young boys who jumped off the back of a stationary train to run after the home run ball that he’d allowed. The stories were just as detailed and entertaining when he discussed getting into a game against N.C. State at second base after two teammates’ ejection and making a great backhanded catch, or a rare loss that season to a semi-pro team from Whiteville in a 1-0 game.

Before last week, he was one of two surviving members of the 1949 team; Gene Hooks, who went on to a decades-long career as Wake Forest athletic director and who the Demon Deacons’ baseball field is now named for, is now the last.

Kinlaw’s love of the Deacs was truly lifelong; according to his obituary, Kinlaw passed away while wearing a Wake Forest baseball t-shirt. He held football season tickets at the school up until the last couple of years, and said his adult children still do.

Kinlaw was a three-sport athlete at Lumberton High School, graduating in 1947, and was a good enough football player to be offered a scholarship to South Carolina. After college, he was an accomplished golfer and outdoorsman, and his obituary also stated his strength in ping pong and horseshoes.

While Kinlaw told me he was just an OK golfer, the results say otherwise; at age 67, he partnered with his son Mark to win the Kiwanis All-American Tournament locally, the only father-son team to do so. He still attended the event as recently as a couple of years ago, into his nineties, to watch his son play. He also enjoyed an acquaintanceship with Arnold Palmer, as the two attended Wake Forest at the same time and maintained a relationship over the years, with Palmer even once inviting Kinlaw to walk a couple of holes with him during a Masters practice round.

In my visit with Kinlaw last year, he was excited to show off the deer heads assembled in his home. This included a buck he had killed just months before, on the final day of deer season in early 2023. He also enjoyed fishing and hunting quail.

Kinlaw was also an Army veteran and made a good career for himself as an educator, including lengthy stints as principal at both Allenton School and East Robeson Elementary School. He an Alton “Tunney” Brooks — both legendary longtime educators in Robeson County — were actually baseball teammates at Wake Forest.

All of this is fundamental to telling the life story of Charles Kinlaw. So is his dedication to his family. In our conversation, he mentioned his late wife Billie several times, clearly missing her nearly two decades after her death. He is survived by his second wife, Katherine, sons Jeffery and Mark and two grandchildren.

While I’ve used his obituary to fill in some gaps, most of what you’ve read here is information I learned during our visit last year, as we went to great depth discussing not only his baseball career but other details of his life. He was a great gentleman to me that morning, and I can only imagine that many in our community have had many other meaningful experiences with him.

As a student of sports history, I greatly appreciated that link to the past while talking to Kinlaw. But his warmth, and his generosity with his time as that deep, strong voice told those stories, was equally meaningful.

He was a great sportsman and, more simply, a great man, and will be greatly missed.