| Arlen Dykstra - A Man of Principle |
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And, he’s convinced the best is still yet to come. With his family and belongings in tow, Dr. Arlen Dykstra turned his 1968 Chevy Impala south onto Highway 270 from Manchester Road just as KMOX 1120 made the announcement: Missouri Baptist College had closed its doors. It was Aug. 17, 1974. A 31-year-old Dr. Dykstra, who had just finished a two-year stint as a history professor at a then-young and struggling Missouri Baptist College, was on his way out of town to begin a new life in Naples, Fla. He had accepted a position as headmaster at a Christian school there. It seemed like the end. In hindsight, however, that moment in time proved to be but a brief separation at the beginning of a relationship that has evolved into a time-tested marriage between Arlen Dykstra and Missouri Baptist University. It’s a relationship he’s built on principle. “I believe the Lord places desires in us all,” Dr. Dykstra said. “If we live our lives according to the principles that the Lord has set forth, then our lives will be blessed. That’s how I try to live my life.”
Even with a pair of extended absences—the two-year spell in Naples being his first—Dr. Dykstra’s tenure at Missouri Baptist University has transcended well over a quarter of a century and, for that matter, for more than half of the life of the institution. Transforming results of his impact can be plainly seen on MBU’s bustling main campus—from full classrooms to accomplished, Christ-serving faculty—and, just as notably, throughout the bi-state region and beyond in the way of successful extension sites and a broad-reaching high school dual-enrollment program. “Few people can stay at an institution in the intense position of Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs without developing excellent survival skills. Arlen Dykstra is a survivor,” said Dr. Alton Lacey, MBU president. “He has been through several presidential and board transitions, some quite difficult, and each time he managed to hold the faculty together and even made progress in the academic program under very trying circumstances. With his tenure and stature, he was literally at times the glue holding MBU’s academic program together. His contributions cannot be overestimated.” Neither can his principle. “Dr Dykstra guided his institution in a strong, balanced Christian spirit, when so many other once-Christian schools were watering down their Christian heritage in the name of diversity,” wrote St. Louis historian William Barnaby Faherty, S.J. in his latest book, “Centuries of St. Louis.” Clad in Plaid
So he returned to St. Louis in the summer of 1975 and immediately found himself teaching a section of American history. Dr. Dykstra’s contagious style of teaching—not to mention a flare for plaids—made a distinct impression on at least one student in that class. MBU alum Kathleen Wendt, ’79, now the MBU director of teaching certification, was, frankly, dreading the course. History wasn’t her strong suit, or so she thought. “And then in walked Dr. Dykstra,” Wendt recalled. “He was a very engaging instructor. In fact, he was the reason I became a history major. He was challenging yet charismatic.” He quickly became known for his no-secret approach to examinations. Dykstra’s students receive essay questions for the final exam on the first day of class. “They are questions like, ‘Trace and evaluate the origins of the American Revolution,’” Wendt said. “You wrote and wrote and wrote. One essay, I wrote for five hours, and the only reason I stopped was because my mother, who worked here at the time, told me that I could either leave or spend the night.” And while his innate passion for history and teaching were certainly attention-getting, so was a certain vivaciously colored plaid jacket he frequently sported, not to mention his distinguished pair of sideburns, Wendt noted. “I’ll never forget that jacket,” she said. But differences in fashion aside, Wendt quickly grew to develop a great respect for him. So much so, that she’s worked by his side ever since in a bevy of MBU positions—from acting as his student fellow and administrative assistant to a lengthy stint as MBU’s director of records. “Arlen Dykstra has been a strong stabilizing factor for this institution,” Wendt said. “He has worked well for so many different constituencies, and to some extent, he has set the institution’s tone for the last 20 years. I think because he is a visionary and a diplomat, he has been able to have such a successful tenure here.” MBU alum Patrick Winning, ’74, was Dr. Dykstra’s pupil shortly before he moved to Florida. Over the course of Winning’s undergraduate experience, he took six of Dykstra’s classes. They were some of the most challenging classes of his undergraduate experience, but he would have taken more if there were more classes that Dykstra taught at the time. Why? After more than 30 years since Dr. Dykstra’s class, Winning still recalls the effervescence he felt when Dr. Dykstra was at the front of the classroom teaching history. In fact, Winning, who went on to graduate from Saint Louis University School of Law, credits Dr. Dykstra as the most influential teacher he has learned from, thanks, in part, to Dr. Dykstra’s passion for history and his sure desire to see his students learn. Dr. Dykstra’s love for history has never subsided, even though he no longer regularly spends time teaching inside the classroom.
“He absolutely has the ability to make history come alive,” Winning said. Enabling success—then and now “I am gregarious,” said Dr. Dykstra during an afternoon chat in his office one day this past September. “And I have the weirdest style of leadership of anyone I know. I have people running in and out of this office all day long. The bottom line is, I pride myself on being an enabler.” Dr. Dykstra’s aggressive yet indisputably compassionate nature, not to mention his foresight to surround himself with enabled people who are invested in MBU, has provided the components necessary to prompt rapid and unprecedented growth in the University’s academic areas—no matter how strange he believes his management style to be. “Dr. Dykstra is a problem solver,” Dr. Lacey said. “When I have a particularly difficult issue, I always feel confident in giving it to Dr. Dykstra to solve. He is very skilled at building teams to work on achieving solutions to problems as well as planning for the future.” But before Dr. Dykstra began solving the issues of the University’s academic arena with such a distinct style, he took his second and final leave of absence from MBU—this time from 1981-1984 to work as the headmaster at neighboring Westminster Christian Academy. Westminster annually gives the Arlen R. Dykstra Master Teaching Award, a $1,000 bonus, to an instructor who exhibits outstanding teaching skills. And though his time at Westminster has proven to leave a lasting legacy, even when he was away from MBU, he still found himself connected with the college he knew he’d one day be working at again. In fact, it was during that time when Missouri Baptist College introduced a pioneer program that would allow high school students at Westminster the opportunity to garner general education college credit from their school’s classroom. The program, called EXCEL, has grown from 22 students in the fall of 1983 to more than 2,000 students enrolled in more than 40 schools in the fall of 2006, making it the third largest of its kind in the Saint Louis region. Not surprisingly, Dr. Dykstra was the mastermind behind the program’s inception. “I saw a definite need, so we began to research the feasibility of offering such a program,” Dr. Dykstra recalled. “The thought of providing students with collegiate-level courses and allowing them to earn college credit, all from their high school classroom, was quite novel at the time.” After his time at Westminster, Dr. Dykstra returned to Missouri Baptist, this time as the institution’s academic dean, a position that over the years has grown into his current role as the University’s provost and vice president for academic affairs. Today, classes are offered—day and night—at MBU’s West Saint Louis County main campus, not to mention four extension sites located throughout the bi-state region. Dykstra made a fundamental decision early on regarding those extension sites, which he credits to their success. “The approach we took to growing our extensions was to identify academic leaders who were already entrenched in their respective communities and then providing them the resources to grow their programs,” Dr. Dykstra said. “And to a large extent, it has worked.” Today, thousands of students are completing their degrees, both undergraduate and graduate, through the University’s extension programs. Under Dr. Dykstra’s watch, the University also birthed its Graduate Studies program, which began in 2000 by offering a Master of Science in Education. Today, more than 1,000 students are enrolled in six graduate offerings and the Educational Specialist program. And Dr. Dykstra believes, the Graduate Studies has yet to see its full potential. “The graduate program is poised to become a leader in the region,” Dr. Dykstra said. “We’ve positioned ourselves in a way so that we are able to respond to the needs of our communities. And, that’s what we’ll continue to do.” Another practice Dr. Dykstra will likely continue is the habit of surrounding himself with driven people, a notion that he credits for much of the success the University has seen. He may be gregarious, but he’s anything but boastful.
While at MBU, Dr. Dykstra has served six of the University’s seven presidents. He also credits their leadership styles, while varying, as part of the reason the University has witnessed such extraordinary academic expansion during his tenure. “All of the presidents I’ve served have given me the flexibility to build academic programs in a very aggressive way,” Dr. Dykstra said. “Truthfully, the biggest influence in my career, specifically at this school, has been the impact each president, although different, has had on my life personally and professionally.” Second chances In many respects, Dr. Dykstra is a man of second chances. His life, in fact, was underscored with a second chance shortly after its inception. Days after his birth inside the Iowa Lutheran Hospital in Des Moines, Dr. Dykstra’s birth mother, unwed and unable to care for a child, left the hospital without her newborn child. Dr. Dykstra became an orphan—albeit for only a few short days. A young Christian farming couple, incapable of having children themselves, had received a tip from their doctor that a baby had been left at a hospital in Des Moines. Within a week, the couple had made the trip to Des Moines to visit the abandoned baby they would soon call their son. “I came from some pretty modest beginnings,” Dr. Dykstra recalled. “Really, it is as low as one can be in terms of the world. So, absolutely I feel like I am a man of second chances.” Sixty-five years later, Dr. Dykstra’s life—marked with giving and receiving second chances—is a testament to an unwavering drive not to fall prey to circumstance. By the young age of 28, Dr. Dykstra had already garnered his doctorate in American history/Asian studies and political science from Saint Louis University. He received his master’s degree in history and education from there in 1967. He garnered his bachelor’s degree from Covenant College in 1964. It was Covenant College, Dr. Dykstra said, where he answered some critical life questions: “Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? What guidelines and directions must I accept and why? How can I explain my life circumstances?” “I use these same questions today when students make it to my office and I have the opportunity to challenge them to develop a Christian world and life view,” he said. He also met his wife, Nancy, a longtime schoolteacher at Twin Oaks Christian School, during his time at Covenant. The couple has been married 44 years. They have had two sons, Benjamin and Kristopher, and two grandchildren, Danielle and Whitney. Although he is quick to adamantly insist his life at MBU has been blessed, he knows it has hardly gone without hardship. In fact, Dykstra first coined the now frequently stated saying among faculty: “Missouri Baptist University is a good place to be when things are going good, but it’s a great place to be when things in your personal life are going badly.” In recent years, that now well-known MBU saying has been given new credibility—specifically in regard to the life of Dr. Dykstra. In the past two years alone, he’s dealt with the loss of his mother and younger son, Kristopher. Kristopher’s death stemmed from complications of a severe car accident in 2001 that left him a quadriplegic. From that point until his death on Nov. 6, 2006, the Dykstras, along with MBU alum and family friend Susan Love, were their son’s sole caretakers, working around the clock to ensure Kristopher received the best care available. All the while, Dr. Dykstra continued to forge MBU’s academic pursuits onward. “Missouri Baptist University has a spirit of family. We are driven to support each other, through good times and times of rejoicing, and also through serious, serious times of trouble. While I’ve been here, my family has experienced situations with serious, gut-wrenching effects. And this school has responded.”
“MBU’s best is yet to come,” Dr. Dykstra said. But regardless of advances in accreditation, programs and extensions–and there have been many since Dr. Dykstra took the University’s academic helm—he believes the University’s well-being has and will continue to hinge on principle, not necessarily productivity. After all, it’s principle that has guided his tenure at Missouri Baptist University for the past 25 years. “If Missouri Baptist University is right for the Lord, then it will be right for the people,” Dykstra said. “As long as we keep Christ as the touchstone for all truth, then the Lord is going to bless this place.” |
At 65 years old, MBU’s provost and vice president for academic affairs has invested much of his life—more than 25 years to be precise—to help a young college that was near closing evolve into a premiere university that is changing lives on a global scale. 
Turns out, the temporary closure of MBC only lasted a week and a half before a group of Baptist churches in Saint Louis raised a significant amount of money to rescue the then cash-strapped college; it’s been on an upswing ever since. Dr. Dykstra’s new life in sunny Florida proved short-lived as well.
After a year in Naples, Dr. Dykstra got an invite to come back to MBU to serve as director of student development and professor of history. Despite a blossoming career and a wife who loved taking her two young sons to the beach, Dykstra accepted. There was something about Christian higher education that was infectious. There was something about Missouri Baptist College that seemed like family, he recalls.
He has long been affiliated with the Missouri Historical Society, the State Historical Association of Missouri and, most notably, the Historical Society of Saint Louis County (SLCHA). He has served as SLCHA’s president, vice president and on its membership board. In 1993, SLCH awarded Dykstra the prestigious Distinguished Service Award. In addition, MBU has hosted SLCH’s annual Awards Presentation for more than a decade. The event occurs during the University’s weekly convocation in October.
“I have been fortunate enough to surround myself by trustworthy people who have been able to make things happen,” Dr. Dykstra said. “I am not young, but I am visionary and I am and always have been perfectly willing to hire people around me who are smarter than I and, for that matter, who are capable of greatness.”
He believes, in part, because of the University’s resolute spirit, it’s bound for greatness. The Higher Learning Commission’s approval this past summer of an expansive version of MBU’s longstanding accreditation proves that to be true, he believes. The most recent approval specifically provides MBU the leverage to make decisions regarding certain programs without first having to get external approval from HLC.