Dr. 凯尔Washut (’07) Named President of Wyoming Catholic College

After 16 years of service to Wyoming Catholic College — which mixes a Great Books curriculum with a commitment to the outdoors — Dr. 凯尔Washut(07届) 任命 the school’s fourth president, assuming leadership of an institution which shares a deep spiritual kinship with his alma mater.

这种亲缘关系开始了. Washut observes, as a friendship between Dr. 罗纳德·麦克阿瑟, founding president of Thomas Aquinas College, and Dr. 约翰高级, co-founder of the erstwhile Integrated Humanities Program (IHP) at the University of Kansas. “One day, early during my time as a student at Thomas Aquinas College, I was dining at [tutor] Dr. John Nieto’s house,” recalls Dr. Washut. “Naturally, my car — with its distinctive Wyoming license plates — was parked out front. At one point during the evening, Dr. 麦克阿瑟 burst into the room, calling out in his booming voice, ‘Who’s the guy from Wyoming?’ He proceeded to buttonhole me, regaling me with stories of his time in Wyoming and of his friendship with Dr. 高级.”

作为最虔诚的信徒. 詹姆斯D. Conley, Bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska, noted in his 2023年毕业典礼致辞 on the College’s 加州 campus, although they did not always agree on particulars, Dr. 麦克阿瑟和麦克阿瑟博士. 高级 were “fellow co-conspirators … engaged in a bold project that would have a lasting impact on the renewal of the liberal arts in the West.” The College and the IHP were among the first generation of institutions to realize that project — and Wyoming Catholic, 成立于2005年, is foremost among the next.

Dr. Washut has watched this project unfold from many vantages at Wyoming Catholic over the years. He first came to the school soon after graduating from TAC in 2007, serving for two years as the inaugural assistant dean for student life before taking a break to earn a doctoral degree, after which he joined the school’s fulltime faculty in 2012, becoming the academic dean in 2019. 经历这一切, he has remained faithful to the essential wisdom at the heart of the two friends’ “conspiracy.”

“As the new president of Wyoming Catholic, I have been formed both by the thought of Dr. 高级 (as communicated by my teacher and mentor, Dr. Robert Carlson, who studied under 高级 himself at the IHP) and that of Dr. 麦克阿瑟 (passed on to me during my time as a student at Thomas Aquinas College),” says Dr. Washut. “This twofold formation has profoundly shaped me as an educator and as a man, 让我做好了准备, 我相信, to guide this unique college into the future — a future informed by the intellectual richness and spiritual boldness each of these great men had to offer.”

Having been 任命 to his new position on August 7, Dr. Washut will formally take the helm as Wyoming Catholic College’s president at its matriculation ceremony on August 20, with a formal inauguration to be held later in the year.

“I am pleased to extend my warm congratulations to Dr. Washut, his family, and the whole Wyoming Catholic College community,” says Dr. Paul O’Reilly, president of Thomas Aquinas College. 就像博士. 麦克阿瑟和麦克阿瑟博士. 高级’s friendship deepened through their years spent in the common project of revitalizing Catholic liberal education, I hope and pray that our two schools may grow closer as we continue the project they started.”