It will also allow him more time for business matters he never fully put aside while at Calvin. Byker has for several years been a director of the InterOil Corp., a publicly traded international oil and natural gas company that conducts shareholder meetings at the college periodically.

Gaylen Byker said he wouldn’t change the way Calvin College went about its mission during his tenure as president, but would liked to have put the private liberal arts institution on a more “sustainable” financial footing before he left.

On Friday, Byker announced his intention to retire next summer after 16 years at the helm, a time when the college broadened its international profile by adding brick and mortar, students and globally focused programming.

The college has expanded across East Beltline Avenue SE and grown by more than a
dozen buildings while full-time academic year tuition has more than doubled to $24,645 in 2010-11.

“We might have had to choose between building more buildings and putting more money in the endowment for scholarships and financial aid, or endowed chairs,” he said Saturday, before the school’s graduation ceremony.

Byker, a Vietnam veteran who left the business world in 1995, said he stayed in office longer than he intended to carry though a $150 million capital campaign.

The lengthy fundraising process helped pay for scholarships and financial aid, faculty research, centers and institutes and for the addition of new facilities. But it had its setbacks, he said, particularly during economic troubles in the past decade.

He said he also wishes he could have left behind a more financially sustainable endowment, which stands at $108 million.

“I’m sure that will be a big factor for my successor,” he said.

As for replacing Byker, the college plans to launch a search committee chaired by longtime board member Dave Vander Ploeg within two weeks.

Read More: http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/05/calvin_college_president_gayle_1.html