How did Charlie Kirk become such a serious man? He worked at it, as anyone must.

I met Charlie when he was 19 years old. He had already begun Turning Point, and he was becoming famous. In my line of work, we do not believe in flattering the young. When he sat beside me at an event, I asked him what Turning Point was. He said it was going to change the culture on college campuses. I asked him what is meant by the expression “college.” He struggled for an answer, as young people do when asked to define a large and basic term.

I told him one of my favorite stories from Lincoln, who explained to a journalist how he became able to write a speech that had impressed the journalist the night before. When he was young, Lincoln said, he kept running across the word demonstrate, and he decided he needed to know what it meant. Eventually he left his position in Springfield, went home to his father’s house, and did not return until he could recite from memory all the proofs in the six books of Euclid.

This is the highest kind of ambition. Not to occupy high places, but to deserve to occupy them. The Lincoln story constitutes a test, for me or anyone who reads it. What do you do after you hear it?

I did not expect to hear from Charlie again. Soon enough, he got hold of my phone number and started texting me. He had taken one of our online courses, passed the examination, received his certificate, photographed himself with it, and texted it to me. Before his death, he did that about 30 times. I talked with him many times. The prevailing subject was always something he wanted to know.

He learned very fast. It was no surprise to me that he began to go to college campuses to hold events under the title “Prove Me Wrong”; no surprise that he conducted himself with spirit but never with anger or cheapness; no surprise that he persuaded tens of thousands to join his cause; no surprise that his hundreds of employees found him inspirational. I never heard him boast. I never heard him accept a compliment except humbly. He was incisive in debate, sometimes even fierce, but with never a personal disparagement or low blow.

Last year, he gave a speech at Hillsdale College, and it was a tour de force. He explained the migrations of thought in America from the Founding to its current perilous state. He did this with power and knowledge. It was a demonstration of the fruit of his learning. All this from a standing start at age 18.

I have the privilege of knowing and loving many high-minded, intelligent, serious young people. Charlie stands out as one of the best. I came to admire him, then to love him. He has done great things, but they were only beginning. He deserves that term of honor that the Greeks reserved for the best: Charlie was a serious man. It made me better to know him.

Like all, except the wicked assassin and his ilk, I grieve over the loss of him and pray for his family.