By Noah Torr | Executive Producer

Dr. George Gawrych, or Dr. G. as many Baylor students call him, is a history professor that specializes in military history and modern Middle East.

As a child, Gawrych said he was obsessed with math but throughout school he fell into history and his experience has turned out better than he could’ve ever imagined.

“Sometimes life gives you things you don’t appreciate and then all of sudden things open up,” Gawrych said. “Then you look back and go ‘it wasn’t so much as passion that brought me here’ but things happen naturally and you look back and become more aware of what was happening.”

Before coming to Baylor, Gawrych was a professor at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, where he taught military history for 19 years. He said one of the best compliments he ever received from teaching was from a general in one of his classes.

“One of the best compliments I had was from an officer who said ‘It’s not just what your teaching us and what we’re learning, but the atmosphere you created,’” Gawrych said.

Gawrych said he tries to bring that same comforting environment to his Baylor classroom. He said the transition from the Staff College to Baylor was not easy, but it was a welcomed challenge.

“It was invigorating to have a second career in the academic world,” Gawrych said. “Coming back to the university, getting in the classroom and trying to relate to students who, right now, could probably be my grandkids.”

Despite a resume packed with accomplishments and prestige, Gawrych said his biggest achievement is his family.

“I can go home to a wife and feel I can relax.”