SLU Trustee Paul Kalsbeek Receives Prestigious Award for Service

05/19/2022

Longtime SLU Trustee Paul Kalsbeek will gladly tell you that serving in the Marine Corps changed his life forever.

Trustee Paul Kalsbeek receives award from Maj. Gen. James W. Lukeman USMC (Ret.). Photo submitted.

“The Marine Corps taught me honor, courage and commitment, and that has impacted my life to this day,” says Kalsbeek.

On April 30, the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation honored Kalsbeek’s service to the Foundation by awarding him its Heritage Award that recognizes an individual who has “provided unique and significant service to the Foundation in fulfillment of its mission preserve and promulgate the history, traditions and culture of the Marine Corps and educate all Americans in its virtues.”

“I am humbled and extremely flattered to have been given this award,” Kalsbeek says. “It has been a labor of love to support the Marine Corps and share its history.”

Kalsbeek joined the Marines 10 days after his 17th birthday in 1973. A sergeant, he served five years in the Corps, with stops in Tel Aviv, Madagascar and at the Dept. of State, among others.

As he became very successful in his banking career with Commerce Bank and, since 2000, with Wells Fargo, Kalsbeek was asked to join the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation’s Board of Directors, which he gladly accepted.

The Foundation supports and fundraises for the Marine Corps Heritage Center and completion of the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, VA, near the largest Marine Corp base in Quanitco, VA. The Museum is free and open 364 days a year, has robust education programs and welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, including more than 50,000 school children.

Part of his service was serving as chair of the Foundation’s Board of Directors from 2018 to 2021 – the first non-Marine Corp General to serve in that role. He now serves as the vice chair of the Foundation Board.

Kalsbeek has been a SLU trustee for 15 years and currently serves as the co-chair of Business and Administration Committee of the Board, and a member of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee and the Executive Committee.

“I want to congratulate Paul for this great honor and for his service to his country, his community and to SLU,” said President Fred Pestello, Ph.D. “He exemplifies the University’s values in unselfishly giving back to others.”