Westmont Magazine President Gaede Steps Down
Westmont’s Seventh President Will Refocus His Work as a Christian Scholar
Westmont President Stan D. Gaede will end his presidency at the end of the academic year in June. He assumed the position in July 2001 after serving as provost, the top academic officer, for five years. The 59-year-old will return to Gordon College in Wenham, Mass., where he taught for 22 years. He will serve as scholar-in-residence at the Center for Christian Studies, which he helped establish.
“My calling is moving me in a different direction,” Gaede says, “away from the presidency and toward a more focused effort on behalf of Christian scholarship.”
The board of trustees immediately began a nationwide search for a new president.
“The board accepted Stan’s resignation with great reluctance,” says David Eaton, chairman of the board. “We’ve been fortunate to have Stan in leadership roles for the past decade. He has done an out-standing job as president, clearly articulating the college’s mission and working to strengthen Westmont academically and financially. We wish him God’s blessings.”
During Gaede’s tenure, Westmont has enhanced its standing as a national liberal arts college. He established the Institute for the Liberal Arts at Westmont and oversaw efforts to update the campus master plan.
He set the direction for an increase in giving. Annual financial support from alumni has more than doubled to $2.87 million and the endowment has more than tripled to $56 million. Total gift income has increased 21 percent; annual giving is up 40 percent.
Student diversity has also improved, rising from 13 percent in 1991 to 20 percent this year. Twenty-six percent of the class of 2009 are students of color.
Gaede graduated from Westmont in 1969. He and his wife, Judy Brinkman Gaede, met at the college and have three children. Kirsten is a senior at Westmont. Nathaniel graduated from Westmont in 1998 and is a second-year student at Boston College Law School. Heather Gaede Regoli is an attorney in Palo Alto, Calif.
Gaede earned his doctorate in sociology at Vanderbilt University. He has written seven books, including “An Incomplete Guide to the Rest of Your Life,” “When Tolerance is No Virtue: Political Correctness, Multiculturalism, and the Future of Truth and Justice” and “Surprised by God.”
“Along with my sense that God is calling me to a new work,” Gaede says, “I am also convinced that he is forming a new leader to take the presidency at Westmont.”