Calvin College is headed toward breaking from a six-decade-long tradition with the nomination of a new leader who does not come out of the Christian Reformed Church. The man recommended to become the Christian Reformed Church school’s new president is an elder of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

That’s not to say Michael K. Le Roy, 44, isn’t an “ideal fit” for Calvin, as a search committee says. Only that his hire would signify a notable departure from the school’s lineage of presidents reared in the CRC.

It is perhaps telling that Le Roy, in a statement about his candidacy, lauded Calvin’s “Reformed Christian mission,” but did not mention the school’s affiliation with the “Christian Reformed” denomination.

“For many faculty members, that’s seen as a positive, sort of a breakout type of thing,” said Corwin Smidt, a longtime political science professor at Calvin. “He’s not only not from the CRC, he’s the first one that hasn’t actually attended Calvin College. “He’s had no linkage to the college or the denomination.”

A search committee last week unanimously recommended Le Roy, provost and executive vice president of Whitworth University in Spokane, Wash., to become Calvin’s next president. He would replace Gaylen J. Byker, who is retiring after 16 years at the helm.

Calvin’s board is scheduled to vote on the recommendation Feb. 9. If approved, the CRC Synod, the church’s governing body, would interview Le Roy next summer.

The private college has had just three presidents over the past 60 years.

The current leader, Byker, a Calvin alum and graduate of Unity Christian High School in Hudsonville, made his name in business before entering college administration. He is credited for fundraising successes that have expanded and improved facilities for the school at East Beltline Avenue SE and Burton Street.

Le Roy, born in Washington state, brings a background steeped in academia. He graduated in 1989 from Whitworth, a 2,675-student private liberal arts school with Presbyterian Church (USA) roots, and earned a doctorate from Vanderbilt University.

He spoke at Calvin at a 1998 conference on religion, social capital and democratic life while teaching at Wheaton College outside Chicago, where he chaired the political science department.

Le Roy returned to Whitworth to teach in 2002, then became vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty in 2005. Last year, he was promoted to executive vice president.

A candidate “who understands faculty and had been in the trenches” of academia was preferred by faculty, Smidt said.

“The pendulum ever swings,” said Scott Vandenberg, chairman of the Lynden, Wash., chapter of Calvin’s alumni association, which has invited Le Roy to a gathering coinciding with a Calvin-Whitworth men’s basketball game Dec. 29.

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