Save the date for these upcoming events for alumni taking place online and on the Hill.

Visit kenyon.edu/alumnievents to register and view our full alumni event calendar.

Robin Goldsmith will present a Keynote “Beat Quality Backlash” at ASQ Boston’s Annual Quality Conference, BOSCON 2022. Two decades ago, Robin chaired back-to-back record-attendance BOSCONs.

John Kooistra: Sharing the obituary for my brother, Frank.

Frank L. Kooistra, age 79, passed away on August 10, 2022. Beloved husband to the late Judith (nee: Ohles). Loving father to Nathaniel Kooistra. Devoted son to the late Lambert and Mary Ellen Kooistra (nee: Wilson). Uncle to Cynthia Kelly (Kevin), Kurt Schueler (Brian), Hank Schueler (Laurie), Orion Kooistra (Kara), Kate Niedermeyer (Patrick) and Susan Schueler, deceased. Great uncle to many nieces and nephews. Brother to John E. Kooistra and Karen Callahan, deceased.

Frank had an interesting life. Perhaps two lives plus, as schizophrenia set in late in college, adding challenges and complications that the rest of us don’t have to face on top of our usual tribulations. Until that time, Frank’s achievements were substantial. He attended Kenyon College, a prestigious and demanding liberal arts institution where he did not shy away from notoriously difficult classes if they interested him. He lettered four years on Kenyon’s perennial national champion swim team and served as the president of his fraternity (Phi Kappa Sigma). After graduating, he earned a master’s degree in English at Case Western Reserve University in spite of the deepening onset of his malady, and went into college teaching. About that time, things began to unravel, fracturing any momentum Frank could muster that would lead to a stable life. Even so, after ten years of drifting, he went on to earn the Ph.D at the University of Alberta in Canada, but most importantly, he became medicated for his condition. This changed the world, allowing him to teach in the Kent State University system for 22 years until he retired at age 70. During that time, he met and married Judy Ohles for a happy union. They adopted their beloved son, Nate, in 2002. After Judy succumbed to cancer in 2011, following a long battle, Frank moved into assisted living where he wrote a unique and well-received book titled, Assisted Living, his third book of published poetry. Frank was a kind, extraordinarily generous and humane person, proclivities that never flagged. With his passing, a rich layer has disappeared from the people whose lives he graced.

Richard Passoth: I'm now in a very nice retirement community. I teach classes and take classes with an older adult education program connected to the University of Denver. I still hike in the Colorado Mountains and snow shoe in the winter. I teach a class "Is America in Decline? Scholarship on the Rise and Fall of Civilizations and the Modern State." My history major returns with a vengeance. Yes, I think America is in decline. Democracies don't last much over 200 years.

Tom Sant: For the past 22 years I have been associated with the Philander Chase Conservancy, Kenyon’s affiliated land trust. The Conservancy, the only land trust affiliated with a college or university in the country, has preserved in one form or another nearly 6,000 acres in a five mile radius of the College. In order to keep Kenyon in the rural setting we learned to appreciate many years ago, I urge you to consider contributing to the Conservancy.

Robert Vockrodt: After retiring from a long legal career, most recently as a consumer bankruptcy attorney, I am enjoying retirement in the over 55 community of Sun Lakes, AZ, where every amenity is covered. Life is good, playing bridge, swimming, water aerobics and tennis when able. I miss old-fashioned Kenyon life, where everything was so totally different than today. Current students would not understand…

Paul Zuydhoek: I am currently reading After the Ivory Tower Falls by Will Bunch, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist from the Philadelphia Inquirer. His theme is that the American Dream is collapsing because of skyrocketing costs of a college degree. Kenyon is his example. From the front flap: “That journey begins In Gambier, Ohio, home to affluent, liberal Kenyon College, a tiny speck of Democratic blue amidst the vast red swath of white, postindustrial, rural Midwestern America. To understand the ‘college question,’ there is no better entry point than Gambier, where a world-class institution caters to elite students amidst a sea of economic despair.”

Read notes from the Class of 1966 and the Class of 1964. 

Kenyon is grateful to the following donors for their generous support of the College, including the Kenyon Fund, during the 2021-22 fiscal year. An asterisk (*) indicates a donor is a member of the Henry J. Abraham Society for loyal and consecutive giving. An obelisk (†) indicates an individual who is deceased.

1965
Annual Fund Total: $75,545  
Class Participation: 55.10%

Presidents Society
Donors of $50,000 or more
Leonard M. Lodish H'99*
John Schofield*

Philander Chase Society
Donors of $10,000 to $24,999
David F. Banks P'96 H'01 
Heidi Gerster (widow of Isaac M. Kikawada)*
Thomas R. Sant H'13*

Bexley Society
Donors of $2,500 to $9,999
Peter G. Jessup*
Arthur E. Kronenberg Jr.*
Robert A. Legg*
Gene E. Little*
Sylvan Seidenman*
Douglas H. Stevens P'89*
David C. Thomas*
Alex Valchuk*
Paul B. Zuydhoek*

Kenyon Society
Donors of $1,000 to $2,499
Jeffrey M. Arnold*
David L. Langston*
William G. Lerchen III P'98*
David Long*
Edward W. Pettigrew P'96*
M. James Spitzer Jr.*

Kenyon Society
Donors of $1 to $999
The Rev. James E. Baltzell III*
Daniel B. Boylan*
Martin A. Ceaser MD 
John V. Cuff III, MD*
G. Blair Ferguson*
Robin F. Goldsmith*
Peter E. Hewitt*
John S. Holt 
Timothy F. Isaacs MD*
George E. Johnson*
Gary E. Kaltenbach*
John E. Kooistra*
M. Salim Lone 
Douglas F. Mayer 
Frederick J. McGavran P'03*
James L. Miller 
Richard L. Ray MD 
Irwin F. Roth*
Victor B. Schwartz*
John E. Sprague P'96*
John K. Stamer*
William E. Sweeney*
Ford Tucker II P'95*
Jeffrey S. Tullman 

George Wharton Marriott Society
These alumni have included Kenyon in their estate plans or have made other planned gifts.

James and Susan Annable '65
David F. Banks '65 P'96
Michael H. Glogower '65†
Robert A. Legg '65
Gene E. Little '65
William D. Love '65
C. Ronald McSwiney '65†
James L. Miller '65
Thomas R. Sant '65
John Schofield '65
Sylvan Seidenman '65
Mr. and Mrs. Alex Valchuk '65
Paul B. Zuydhoek '65

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