SPOKANE, Wash. — Whitworth University is honoring their 16th president, Art De Jong who died at the age of 89 on Jan. 26 at a retirement community in North Carolina.
De Jong served as president at Whitworth University from 1888-92. He is known for his administrative success at Muskingum and went to work on fundraising and securing Whitworth’s financial stability.
During the time he was president, there was a decline in the college-age population and a recession began to take a toll on colleges across the nation.
In De Jong’s second year at Whitworth, he had to make substantial cuts to the university to balance the budget.
He is remembered for “institutionalizing long-range planning as Whitworth attempted to preserve the strengths of its past and look forward with a clear purpose and vision.”
In 1992, De Jong suggested that Whitworth move towards university status and proposed the establishment of the Fine Arts and International Studies schools, along with the existing School of Education. He wanted to “build bridges to the community,” and pushed to be involved with the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technical Institute.
“There are a number of things for which we should honor President Art De Jong,” Whitworth President Scott McQuilkin says. “He deeply encouraged our faculty to take seriously the integration of Christian faith and learning. His talent for recruiting exceptional people to the board of trustees, some of whom served and contributed for decades, is still being felt today, and he worked tirelessly to establish Whitworth’s place in higher education here in the Inland Northwest. Although his tenure at Whitworth was relatively short, his impact remains to this day.”
If you would like to leave a message to De Jong’s family or plant a tree in his honor, please visit his obituary.
