Westmont Magazine History Professor Chronicled Westmont’s History
Paul Wilt, professor emeritus of history, died June 23 at the age of 93. He taught mostly U.S. and Latin American history at Westmont for 36 years (1958-94), won the Teacher of the Year Award twice and served twice as interim dean of the faculty. He held many other positions, including divisional coordinator, vice chair of the faculty and chair of the history department. A big supporter of Europe Semester, he led the program eight times and directed five European Summer Seminars.
Paul’s father owned a grocery store in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where he grew up. He studied at Lancaster School of the Bible and Theology and married Doris Rhine after graduating in 1950. He taught at his alma mater while earning a degree in history from Franklin and Marshall College in 1955. Paul served as a pastor at Calvary Bible Church in Hanover, Pennsylvania, but continued his studies, receiving a master’s degree in history from the University of Delaware in 1958. He’d already started a doctoral program in history at American University, which he completed in 1970.
When he applied for a job at Westmont in 1958, the position had already been filled. Months later, the college asked if he were still interested, as the person hired decided not to come. Paul and Doris moved their three children to Santa Barbara, arriving the same day as the new students. He had not yet completed his doctorate and had few possessions and no savings. Instead, he brought a rich vision for serving God and for Christian education.
When the college established the Phi Kappa Phi Paul C. Wilt Lectures to honor him, Robert Gundry, longtime professor of New Testament and Greek and scholar-in-residence, paid tribute to Paul. “He contributed heavily and self-sacrificially to the college, especially for the acquisition of books by its library. He was a representative of Christian service here and in the wider community, of Christian service at its most admirable, at its most exemplary.” Gundry noted that Paul’s commitment to Christian education extended to his role in founding four Christian day schools, three in Pennsylvania and one in Santa Barbara.
The late philosophy professor Robert Wennberg also praised Paul. “He was, of course, a deeply committed Christian, devoted to the life of learning, and devoted to his students. Paul Wi l t believed that Westmont was to be a place where the Christian faith was to inform our learning and our learning was to inform our Christian faith. He embodied this wholeness in his own person and sought to help his students achieve this in their own lives. With all his heart, he believed in the value of history as a professional enterprise; he believed in its value for his students, and he wanted his department to flourish — but never, never at the expense of the college as a whole.”
Paul met and interviewed people involved in founding Westmont and leading the college during its first decades. His extensive oral histories provide valuable information, and he wrote about the founding of each building and key faculty and administrators. After retiring from teaching, he spent 10 years organizing information in the archives, laying the groundwork for a professional archive. He continued to volunteer there until his health declined.
A beloved professor and engaging teacher, Paul leaves a legacy of generations of students with a keen appreciation for and understanding of history — and much sharper writing skills. He contributed significantly to the preservation of Westmont’s history and heritage.
Paul concluded a 1998 devotional by saying, “Westmont is above all a testimony to Jesus Christ, the Lord of life and all that is. We must remember those who sacrificed to establish this college.”
He is survived by his wife, Doris, and their four children: Tom, Marilyn ’74, Janet ’76 and Daniel ’84.