While a formal accounting of former East-West Center President Everett Kleinjans’ travels might suggest a Zelig-like existence spread out across social, political and actual battlefields of World War II Europe, post-occupation Japan, revolutionary China and post-Vietnam-era Cambodia, the real story of Kleinjans’ remarkable life is that of a single journey.
"My father took all of his experiences and used them to work for peace in the world," said Kleinjans’ son David. "He had a vision of working toward world peace, and he never stopped."
Kleinjans died April 30 in Holland, Mich. He was 92.
As chancellor and president of the East-West Center from 1968 to 1980, Kleinjans introduced the center’s multinational, problem-based approach to addressing regional and global issues. He was also the driving force in establishing the center, formerly a part of the University of Hawaii system, as a separately incorporated institution.
Kleinjans, known to friends and colleagues as "Ets," was born in Zeeland, Mich. He attended Holland Christian High School and Hope College, where he was a member of the "Blitz Kids" who won a Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association basketball championship in 1943.
Upon graduation Kleinjans was drafted into the Army, serving as a sergeant in a machine gun squad during the Battle of the Bulge.
"For a lot of people who served, the wartime experience was the defining moment of their lives," David Kleinjans said. "That was not something my father was into. He never talked about it. It wasn’t something he was terribly proud of."
Everett Kleinjans returned to Michigan after the war, married college sweetheart Edith Klaaren and taught and coached basketball at his old high school.
But having seen the reality of war up close, Kleinjans was eager to do what he could in the name of peace. In 1948 he and his wife left Michigan for Fujian province in China, where Kleinjans had accepted a position teaching English at Talmadge College under the auspices of the Reformed Church of America.
The Kleinjans’ stay in China was cut short when the Communists routed Chinese Nationalists for control of the country in 1949. They returned to the United States the following year but quickly relocated to Japan, where Kleinjans was to teach English and linguistics at Meiji Gakuin in Tokyo.
Soon after arriving, however, Kleinjans was pressed into temporary duty as principal of the newly re-established American School, which was being returned to civilian control by the outgoing U.S. occupying forces.
Kleinjans returned to the United States for two years (1956 to 1958) to earn a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Michigan, then returned to Japan to work at International Christian University.
In 1967, eager for his mostly Japanese-raised children to gain some footing in American culture, Kleinjans accepted a position as vice chancellor at the East-West Center in Honolulu. He took over as chancellor the following year and began implementing plans for problem-based initiatives that would draw students from around the Pacific to collaborate on addressing global peace issues.
David Kleinjans said, "He felt that there was great value in working together in a multicultural setting. They had to actually work together, not just do dances for one another. He felt this was the real achievement of his life."
In 1975 Everett Kleinjans led the effort to incorporate the center and became its first president. He served for six more years before taking a teaching position at Hawaii Pacific University.
Even then, Kleinjans’ travels were far from over. At HPU he worked closely with a graduate student who wanted to open a graduate school in his native Cambodia, whose educational system had been devastated by the mass persecution of intellectuals under the Khmer Rouge. Kleinjans traveled to Cambodia to help open the school and later stayed on to help establish the Center for Advanced Study, an independent research and education organization.
After a brief return to Hawaii in 2005, Kleinjans, then in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, returned to Michigan, where he remained until his death last month.
Kleinjans is survived by sons Brian, David and John; daughters Monica and Connie; nine grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter. He is also survived by his second wife, former state Rep. Jackie Young.
