Kenneth W. Jewell Endowment

The Kenneth W. Jewell Endowment was founded by his family to benefit those students possessing a gift for music and needing financial assistance to pursue this passion. This scholarship endowment honors this gifted musician and professor who was one of the "founding" faculty of West Valley College.

Ken was born in 1919 in Plymouth, Indiana and after graduating from Plymouth High School attended the well respected Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. In his words, "It began four years of the greatest pleasure I have ever had in music". After graduating from Oberlin, where he met his first wife Dorothy, he taught at Eureka College in Illinois before going to Grand Rapids, Michigan as organist for the Westminster Presbyterian Church. He moved with Dorothy and their two children, David and Elaine, to California in 1952 to become the Minister of Music at First Congregational Church in Berkeley and professor at Pacific School of Religion at UC Berkeley. He earned his Masters at Ann Arbor Michigan, was a member of ASCAP and earned the degree of Fellow, American Guild of Organists. He studied with such masters as Marcel Dupre, Arthur Poister, Carl Weinrich, Bob Noehren and Robert Baker. Ken became an accomplished professional musician, published writer and composer.

When West Valley College was formed in 1964 he became one of the founding faculty members. Ken offered his skills of accomplished professional musician and published writer and composer to this new college bringing a standard of excellence which was recognized by colleges, students and the community alike. He was indeed looked upon as a master musician and teacher by his colleges and he motivated his students to their highest performing levels. He was demanding and inspiring in his teaching of theory and chorale, community choirs and orchestras, keyboard, improvisation and sight-singing. As Chairman of the Humanities and Fine Arts Department and later as Chairman of the Music Department he provided leadership in the establishment of department practices and standards and guidelines for music curriculum development. Ken took an active role in the West Valley College Faculty Senate and was a strong advocate of faculty participation in college goals, planning and practices.

After his first wife died, Ken met Kathy Lukefahr in one his Music Appreciation classes. She had the opportunity to meet Ken's colleagues and understand his key role in making West Valley College the excellent institution of higher learning that it is today. They married in 1983 and moved to Sonoma after his retirement from West Valley College in 1984.

The Kenneth W. Jewell Endowment honors Ken's passion for music, his love of beauty, and devotion to his family. In addition to music Ken's love of Yosemite and poetry, travel, wine Abe Lincoln and the Civil War fed his deep spirit. It is the hope of his wife Kathy, his daughter Elaine and his son David that this endowment will help students who wish to pursue their life's work in music and that they may be inspired by this unique and gifted man.