Jim Bennett teaches beginning and intermediate Spanish classes at the Douglas County Senior Center. The classes focus on reading and conversation.

Jim Bennett sits quietly near the end of a long table in a side room of the Douglas County Senior Center. He is joined by four of his students.

Removing his ball cap and yellow-tinted glasses, Bennett addresses the group.

“¡Hola! ¿Llueve mucho donde tu vivés?” He greets the class, asking if it is raining. “No, hace sol,” he says, gesturing toward the window to show the class there is sun this day rather than rain.

Deliberately, Bennett hands each of his students a single photocopied sheet of paper, the day’s handwritten lesson. Spanish class is about to begin.

“(Bennett) just has a passion, a passion for language and for sharing it, ya know?” said Kim Sloan, one of his students.

Jim Bennett teaches beginning and intermediate Spanish classes at the Douglas County Senior Center. The classes focus on reading and conversation.

Bennett is a retired college professor who spent about four decades teaching Spanish, among other things. And for the past four years or so he’s been teaching Spanish classes at the Douglas County Senior Center, advanced classes on Mondays and beginner classes on Wednesdays.

Over his career, Bennett said he taught at Wyoming State, Kansas State and Missouri Western universities, to name a few schools. He also worked as a translator for the Army in Leavenworth.

A Kansas University graduate with bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and physics and a doctorate in French and Spanish literature, Bennett chose to relocate to Lawrence after his retirement. Since then, however, he has hardly remained sedentary.

Shying away from the word “volunteering,” Bennett insists he is instead sharing his talents, something he considers both a pleasure and a social responsibility.

“Sharing is one of the most enjoyable things you can do,” he said. “You don’t just sit around and take everything, you give back.”

Sloan, a former court reporter, said she decided to take up Bennett’s class after 30-some years of listening to frustratingly inaccurate court translators. Now, just over a year later, she said she has a goal of visiting South America and surrounding herself with the language.

Initially, Sloan said, Bennett can be a bit intimidating, especially in his pursuit of proper grammar and pronunciation. But that soon gives way to a fun and enjoyable learning experience.

“He’ll get in these little asides, sometimes he breaks into song in Spanish,” she said. “He’s a really special person, to give what he does to all of us, and with this eternal patience.”

Bennett’s language skills are strongest with Spanish, French and Latin, of which he said he has a “working knowledge.” In addition, he has experience with German, Italian and Portuguese.

When the 85-year-old Bennett was younger, he said, the student body was divided into two distinct groups, the science group and the Latin group. He was sorted into the latter.

“That’s just the way they did it in those days,” he said. “The ones that took Latin were expected to go to college.”

The center’s Community Services Program Manager, Janet Ikenberry, said not only does Bennett’s skill set help to keep the seniors learning, it also serves as a way for them to interact.

“It’s priceless,” she said. “He’s got folks that continue on in that class and they’re kind of almost a club. Occasionally there’s a new person that will pop in there and they make them feel really welcome.”

Alongside his Spanish classes, Bennett is a regular at the center’s activities, attending painting classes on Tuesdays and Popcorn Fridays.

“You’ve got to keep your brain moving like your body,” he said. “You can’t just sit in bed all day. You’ll lose your muscle tone and you won’t be able to walk.”

And while Bennett said he appreciates an opportunity to get out and about, he’s quick to remark on the facility’s waning program list.

“We used to have sewing, basket making, dancing, wood working, all kinds of things,” he said. “It’s just a shame. They keep canceling them off.”

Ikenberry acknowledged the shortening class list, adding the facility would love to see more volunteers.

“We’ve tried to maintain the classes that are ongoing like the band and the choir,” she said. “Right now we don’t have a whole lot of activities going on.”

Another of Bennett’s students, Saul Stahl, is a retired KU mathematics professor who recently began teaching math at the center. Both men agree they’d like to see more folks from “up on the hill” bringing their talents to the center.

“I think you should share what you can do,” Stahl said.

“Math, music, history. We’d like to get people down here and get it hopping,” Bennett said.

Sloan reiterated Bennett’s frustration.

“He wants other people in the community to share,” she said. “Lawrence is full of so many people with so much education and knowledge, and he wishes they would give that back to the people.”

Bennett speaks of Lawrence as an artistic and cultural town, but when asked why he chose to return, he shrugs.

“I’m a Midwesterner,” he said.

Prompted for more, Bennett spoke of the Spanish term “querencia,” which is used to describe either a bull’s final standing place in the bullfighting arena or a place the bull has a particular attachment to, especially in regard to its home.

“The bull always goes back to the corners of a hay field he grew up in,” Bennett said. “Querencia.”