New Calvin President Nominated

A presidential search committee has unanimously recommended that Dr. Michael K. Le Roy be appointed as the ninth president of Calvin College, the Christian Reformed Church’s liberal arts college in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Le Roy, who currently is serving as provost and executive vice president at Whitworth University in Spokane, Wash., would succeed Dr. Gaylen Byker. Byker, who has served as Calvin's president since 1995, announced last May that he will retire at the end of the 2011-2012 academic year.

Calvin's Board of Trustees will meet with the candidate early next year and, assuming they approve the search committee’s recommendation, they will submit the minutes of that meeting to the CRC’s denominational Board of Trustees.

The final step is to send the appointment to Synod 2012 for ratification, after the candidate is interviewed. If synod approves, Le Roy would likely take over as president in July 2012.

“(Le Roy’s) strengths as a scholar, teacher, and administrator and his deep passion for Reformed Christianity make him an ideal fit for our college,” said an announcement Wednesday from the presidential search committee.

“LeRoy is an excellent fit to our opportunity profile and with God’s grace will provide outstanding leadership for Calvin in the coming years,” the announcement says.

It said that, after considering many candidates, the search committee unanimously settled on Le Roy. “We have worked as a team to find the best person for the position …”

Le Roy will be introduced to the Calvin College community in January prior to the meeting of the Calvin Board of Trustees.

“Rejoice with us in God’s provision of the next leader for our college. Pray with us that, as the Le Roy family prepares for this transition, God’s grace will attend them,” says the announcement from the search committee.

Le Roy joined Whitworth University in 2002 after serving as department chair and associate professor of political science at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill. He became executive vice president in 2010.

After graduating from Whitworth in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in international studies, Le Roy received a Ph.D. in political science at Vanderbilt University, in 1994. While completing his doctorate, he served two years as a research and teaching fellow at Göteborgs University in Sweden under a Fulbright grant and funding from the American-Scandinavian Foundation.

Author of several books and articles in his field, Le Roy has spoken on many radio and television programs as a political analyst on international and national politics.

During his tenure at Whitworth, he raised funds for a $1 million endowment and secured a $2.7 million parcel of land on which to establish an environmental studies center north of Spokane.

Le Roy and his wife, Andrea, have three children. Both Michael Le Roy and his wife are ordained elders in Colbert Presbyterian Church in Colbert, Wash.

The search committee was composed of 16 people representing the Calvin College Board of Trustees, faculty, staff/administrators, alumni, students and the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA).

Calvin's Board of Trustees elected long-time board member Dave Vander Ploeg to serve as chair of the presidential search committee.