Westmont Magazine Providing for the Education of Future Generations

A veteran of World War II, the Korean War and the Cold War, Reuben Kvidt spent 23 years in the U.S. Army, retiring as a major. He served on Gen. MacArthur’s staff in Tokyo and commanded a company along the Czechoslovakia border at the height of East-West tensions. He also taught ROTC at Shattuck School in Faribault, Minn.

With his military background and experience with training, Reuben has definite ideas about education. “What concerns me the most is the education people are not getting today,” he says. “That’s why I was so impressed when my grandson went to Westmont and I learned about the quality of the education he received and the emphasis on Christian training.”

Doug Mathews graduated in 1984, and his daughter will attend Westmont next fall. “The fact that my great-grandchildren want to go to Westmont keeps me totally interested in the college,” Reuben says. “We want to make sure they get their education in the right place.”

After the Army, Reuben worked in real estate in Orange County and Arroyo Grande, where he developed Oak Park Acres. His first wife, the mother of his four children, died, and he married Arlet 21 years ago. She has two children. Reuben retired in 1995, and the couple has settled in Northfield, Minn. Reuben attended a one-room Minnesota school through the eighth grade. “We love country living,” he says.

While they are retired, the Kvidts keep busy as active members in their church and in the Gideons ministry. Arlet has been a mentor through MOPS, participates in the Gideons auxiliary and loves to garden and cook. They also follow the careers of eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

The Kvidts made their first gift to Westmont in the early 1990s: they donated some real estate. They also made a provision for the college in their will. Since then, they have named Westmont as a beneficiary of their Charitable Remainder Trust and invested in a gift annuity through the college. “We are so happy to support a school with a high quality education that is also Christian,” Reuben says.