Board elects new trustee, two emeritus members

At the meeting on Saturday, April 26, Kenyon's Board of Trustees bid farewell to David D. Taft '60 H'00 and Richard L. Thomas '53, both of whom were elected to emeritus status, and elected Charles P. Waite Jr. '77 as a trustee-at-large.

Taft has served as a trustee of the College since 1990. In 2000, the Woodland Cottages were renamed the Taft Cottages in memory of his parents, Louise Dakin Taft and Kingsley Arter Taft. Thomas is the College's longest-serving trustee and has twice served as the board's chair. In 1998, he funded Kenyon's Richard L. Thomas Chair in Creative Writing as part of his $5 million gift to "Claiming Our Place: The Campaign for Kenyon." In 1953, Thomas was awarded the E. Malcolm Anderson Cup, Kenyon's highest form of recognition for extracurricular leadership.

Waite is general partner of Olympic Venture Partners (OVP), a leading early-stage capital firm investing in new company markets for software, communications, the Internet, and biotechnology. He has more than twenty-four years of experience in helping to build start-up companies.

In 1987, Waite left his post as general partner at Hambrecht and Quist Venture Partners to join OVP. Prior to that, he was in marketing and sales management in the cardiovascular medical products division at Cobe Laboratories, Inc.

Waite majored in history at Kenyon and was an all-conference lacrosse player. He went on to earn an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. A resident of Woodinville, Washington, he is married to Susan Butterfield Waite '78. His son, Charles P. Waite III, is a first-year student at Kenyon.

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