Charlie Kirk's mentor reveals promise he made to the late activist and fulfilled after his death

DALLAS, TEXAS: Charlie Kirk's academic mentor Larry Arnn has opened up about the first meeting that changed his view of the teenage activist and the promise he eventually fulfilled after Kirk's death.

Arnn, the president of Hillsdale College, spoke about Kirk during the latest episode of 'The Charlie Kirk Show' podcast on Wednesday, September 9. The episode featured Andrew Kolvet, a Turning Point USA spokesperson, Steve Bannon, an executive and former White House chief strategist, and Blake Neff, producer of 'The Charlie Kirk Show.' The conversation came as the show marked the one-year anniversary period of Kirk's death by speaking with some of his closest allies.

Larry Arnn fulfilled his honorary degree promise to Charlie Kirk

During the conversation, Arnn reflected on the promise he had made to Kirk and his wife, Erika Kirk, to give them an honorary degree from Hillsdale College.

Hillsdale College awarded honorary degrees to Charlie and Erika Kirk in May 2026, fulfilling the promise Arnn had spoken about during his remarks at a memorial service for Charlie Kirk on September 21 in Glendale, Arizona.

Speaking at the memorial, Arnn described Kirk as his friend and recalled how their relationship began with a conversation in which he questioned the young activist.

“We had the pastor. I’m the schoolteacher,” Arnn said before introducing his story about Kirk.

“I have one short story to tell you about Charlie Kirk — my friend.”

Arnn said Kirk became a friend because he had “interrogated him” during their first encounter.

He explained that he had asked Kirk questions he could not answer, but the young activist did not simply walk away.

Instead, Kirk wanted to know what he should do.

Arnn recalled Kirk asking, “What should I do?”

His answer was not an easy one.

“Well, you have to suffer. If you want to grow, you have to suffer,” Arnn recalled telling him.

He encouraged Kirk to study deeply, starting with the Bible, the classics and the founding of America.

“How do I learn that?” Kirk asked.

“You have to suffer. You have to study. You have to think,” Arnn recalled replying.

At the time, Arnn thought he might never hear from Kirk again.

He was wrong.

“Within a month, he got a hold of my cell phone number, and he texted me a copy of a certificate of completion of a Hillsdale College online course,” Arnn said.

Kirk would eventually complete that course 31 times, according to Arnn.

Larry Arnn was initially unimpressed by teenage Charlie Kirk

The story of Arnn and Kirk's relationship actually began with Arnn being less than impressed before they had even spoken.

During the podcast, Andrew Kolvet brought up the relationship and pointed out that Kirk looked up to Arnn.

“And that's why he said yes, Sir to you, because you were sort of part of a Mount Rushmore of people that he looked up to,” Kolvet told Arnn.

But Arnn admitted that the feeling was not quite mutual when he first heard about Kirk.

He said people kept approaching him and talking about an 18- or 19-year-old boy as if he were already extraordinary.

“Everybody kept coming up to me and saying, there's this 18 and 19 year old boy and he's the greatest of all the boys ever born,” Arnn recalled.

He said he did not believe young people should be spoken about that way because he did not think it was good for them.

Then came the Hillsdale College event in Wyoming.

Arnn said Foster Friess, who helped launch Kirk in his early life and whom Arnn described as “a very good man,” was responsible for Kirk being seated next to him.

Arnn had seen Kirk's name on the seating list beforehand and was annoyed.

“I thought, what's that about?” he recalled.

“I never met him, right? And so I pretended that I didn't know who he was.”

Instead of giving Kirk an easy introduction, Arnn decided to ask him difficult questions.

“And I asked him some hard questions and he couldn't answer them,” Arnn said.

Arnn remembered thinking that Kirk was becoming increasingly prominent and was surrounded by powerful and influential people.

“So you're going to fix the world and you don't know much about it,” he told him.

Larry Arnn challenged Charlie Kirk on culture and college

Two words became central to that first conversation: “culture” and “college.”

Arnn asked Kirk to define both.

Kirk struggled.

“He couldn't, you know, he could, but he stumbled around,” Arnn said.

But the conversation did not end there.

There were more than 400 people at the event, according to Arnn, and he had been expected to speak to the group and move on to his other appointments.

Instead, Kirk stayed with him.

“I gave my talk, but apart from that, I didn't talk to anyone else,” Arnn recalled.

The two kept talking for so long that both were late for their next appointments.

Arnn said it was around two-thirds of the way through their extended conversation that his opinion of Kirk changed.

“By the time the conversation was over, you know, there were 400 and some people, I think at that event it was a lunch and I was supposed to be talking to all those people, right?” Arnn said.

“Well, I gave my talk, but apart from that, I didn't talk to anyone else.”

He added, “Charlie would not leave me alone.”

Eventually, Arnn realized that Kirk had won him over.

“And by the time and he, I was late for my next appointment and he was late for his next and about 2/3 of the way through all that he had just won me over,” Arnn said.

Arnn said he could see something different in Kirk.

“He was becoming an important man. He was admired all over the place by powerful people and I beat him up,” Arnn recalled.

But Kirk's reaction was what stood out to him.

“And his reaction to that was exactly right,” Arnn said. “He was a student, right? He wanted to know.”

That, Arnn said, was when he began to recognize what Kirk was really like.

“So I could see that in him,” he said.

Larry Arnn recalled 12 years of mentoring Charlie Kirk

That first conversation eventually became the start of a 12-year mentor-student relationship.

Arnn said Kirk continued to approach him as a student, even as his own profile grew and he became increasingly well known.

The Hillsdale president also remembered how Kirk kept pursuing his education after their first meeting, sending him certificates showing that he had completed Hillsdale College online courses.

By the time of his memorial remarks, Arnn said Kirk was the only person on his personal list of the best young people he had known who had never been a full-time Hillsdale student.

“We will miss him dearly. He can't be replaced,” Arnn said.

Arnn also spoke about Kirk's death in deeply personal terms during the memorial service, saying that Kirk had suffered enough and had gone to the Lord.