Richard Rubin '62 extends the duties of citizenship to include his alma mater

"A blind date that worked out" is how Richard Rubin '62 P'00 describes his relationship with Kenyon College. Growing up in New Jersey, he had heard of Kenyon only through a chance encounter with a patient of his father, a physician in general practice. When Rubin arrived as a freshman, at a college he had never before seen, he was assigned to Norton Hall, a "sparkling new dormitory" at the time, and he was "mesmerized by the campus."

The attraction and affection have continued and deepened over four decades. Now, Rubin says, "Kenyon is at a turning point as we install our seventeenth president. We can savor the fact that the College has more applicants, higher quality applicants, than ever before, but we can't let our fundraising suffer and lose pace. The cornerstones of Kenyon's excellence are its academic quality, its institutional caliber, and its sound development policies. I enjoy the challenge of stimulating participation in the College's efforts."

Rubin graduated from Kenyon with honors in political science, gained a master's degree in international affairs from Columbia University, and earned his J.D. from George Washington University. He served as a legislative aide on Capitol Hill before becoming a research analyst with the New Jersey Council for Urban Affairs, of which he eventually became executive director. Service as special assistant to New York City Mayor John Lindsay for Model Cities, as an advisor in Eugene McCarthy's presidential campaign and Tom Hayden's Senate campaign, and another episode as a legislative assistant to U.S. Senator John Tunney whetted his taste for public service, and he sought election to the Marin County Board of Supervisors in 1976. Citing his thirteen years of experience in the legislative process at the state, federal, and local levels, Rubin sought "a creative partnership of all interests, a coalition of forces that can involve all citizens." Unfortunately, that utopian ideal did not convert the California voters, and he lost that election. But he continued to nurture ideals of what it means to practice "good citizenship habits."

One of those habits is volunteer work, participation in one's community to produce a more humane society. When Rubin returned to Kenyon for his twentieth reunion, he had been active in his local civic realm, but he had not been engaged with his alma mater. He became immersed in the College, fascinated by the changes he saw but also by the immutability of the institution. "Kenyon hadn't squandered its physical beauty, the faculty reputation, or the caliber of students. I wondered how I would fit into the College of today, and I saw I could walk into a classroom and feel right at home. That intimacy still persists." What makes Rubin extend his volunteer service is his "unfulfilled ambition to see the evolution of an institution that I came to love."

Rubin believes that the success of any enterprise, be it college or community, will depend on the ability to improve connections between the public and private sectors, to leverage public resources to generate more private support. In the instance of Kenyon, this translated into Rubin's agreement to serve on the Parents Advisory Council and as the Kenyon Parents Fund chair and the Senior Parent Challenge chair for 1999-20. He now heads the Kenyon Fund Executive Committee.

Now that recent graduates--including his daughter Pilar Rubin, a member of the Class of 2000--are exponentially increasing the size of our alumni body, Rubin seeks to increase the number of donors to the Kenyon Fund proportionately. He is quite proud of the fact that, despite the downturn in the economy and "campaign fatigue" among the College's donors, the Kenyon Fund increased the number of donors in 2002-03. Rubin sees this as an example of how people can be trained to be good citizens.

A professor at both the University of California at Berkeley and Golden Gate University, president of his own government relations and public policy management firm, and board member of the California Association of Local Agency Formation Commissions and the California Small Business Board, Rubin is not contemplating retirement. In his spare time, he serves on the boards of the Strawberry Recreation District, the College of Marin Foundation, the San Francisco Girls Chorus, and San Francisco's Self-Help for the Elderly. When asked what he would do if he weren't volunteering for Kenyon, he intimates that he would move forward with publishing a book and renewing his bid for public office.

With all these competing interests, why does the relationship between Richard Rubin and the College thrive? For its part, Kenyon is grateful for his devotion, his leadership, and his support. For his part, Rubin feels that "the best investment I can make with the discretionary funds I have is in the College. The rewards increase incrementally, and you can always see the results in the students." As he ponders the four decades he has been associated with Kenyon, Rubin urges, "If you think Kenyon gave you the head start in life you needed, that it helped you become who you are, then why not think of making a repayment of the debt, a small investment in the future? If you aren't supporting the future, you have forsaken a part of your past."