Forty years ago, sociology professor Jim Walsh started teaching at Oberlin College. During Walsh’s time at Oberlin, he taught such classes as “Deviance, Discord and Dismay,” “The Sociology of Medicine” and “Torts, Trials and Trouble.” This year he will retire. Alumni have organized a farewell event, “From Walsh to the World,” for this Saturday at 11 a.m. in Hallock Auditorium and the atrium in the Adam Joseph Lewis Center. The event will include short speeches, career advice, funny stories and the return of some of Walsh’s students.

What has been your favorite class to teach?
I love “Deviance, Discord and Dismay.” C. Wright Mills once said that he didn’t like to teach people beyond the sophomore year because they come beady-eyed. The enthusiasm of brand new Oberlin students is better than anything one can encounter, and I’ve loved that class.

What year of students do you like teaching the most?
All of them. One of my seminar students gave a presentation this morning. I remember her as a frightened, naïve freshman years ago. The presentation today was poised and close to professional. To watch that progression is the best part, and then watching their progression over the next ten, 20, 30 years.

When you first started teaching at Oberlin, were there any rules that would now shock Oberlin students?
Oh, [the rules] were goofy. They were absolutely goofy. [The College] had one rule that men had to dress for dinner — they had to wear a tie. They used to come to the dining hall with just a tie. [The College was] debating co-educational visitation. There had to be a garbage can propping open the door. It was very structured. It changed very, very quickly.

What is your favorite memory of Oberlin or Oberlin students?
I have so many. Probably my favorite part, the thing I look back on most fondly, [is] the impact a series of my students had on my family. They babysat for them; they befriended them; they talked to them. Several of [these former students] are going to be here Saturday, [and] I was thinking of how many people on that list have spent significant time with my children. This is a special place, and you are special people.

What are your plans after retirement?
Oh, I’ll still be working [as a prosecutor]. I have roughly 100 people come through my life every day and to quit cold turkey would be foolish. I can do some good in the prosecutor’s office — that’s an important part of who I am. There is a time, I told my students this year, when I want to go out at the top of my game. I need to go from the teaching ranks. I’m a pretty damn good prosecutor. But all that depends upon [my granddaughter] Bridget. She has really changed the way [my wife and I] approach the world. We’re close enough to her where we can spend a lot of time with her. We have travel plans. We have a place in Montana where my roots are very, very deep. We have family out there, and we enjoy the contrast of this place to the peace and quiet in Montana.

Are you excited for Saturday’s recognition party?
I’m just overwhelmed. I was just shown the list of people who are coming. I am flabbergasted. They’re coming from the east, from Canada, from the south, north and west. I’m so pleased I’m overwhelmed.

Any parting comments?
If it’s possible to slip it in there, I would like to thank the students who are on campus now for putting up with an old geezer. The students here have kept me young. I am going to do my very best to establish that 65 is the new 25.