President Valerie Smith shared the following message with the campus community on April 3, 2026

Dear Friends,

I write with the sad news that former vice president for development and alumni relations Dan C. West died peacefully on Monday, March 30, surrounded by his family. He was 86.

Dan is remembered as a gentleman-scholar whose embrace of the College’s mission and history was as effective at raising money for the school as were the personal thank you notes he regularly wrote in longhand to donors. 

Dan is survived by Sidney Claire Childs West, his wife of almost 63 years, who frequently traveled and hosted with him and whose efforts were integral to his work; children Elizabeth Claire West Jones (Eric Palefsky) and Andrew Childs West; and two grandchildren, in addition to two sisters, a brother, and many nieces and nephews.

A Service of Witness to the Resurrection will be held at 11 a.m. on April 10 at First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta, followed by a reception and private burial. The service will be livestreamed.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to the Dan C. and Sidney West Endowed Scholarship at Lyon College, the Dan and Sidney West Scholarship at Swarthmore College, and the West Endowment for the Campus Protestant Ministry at Union College. 

I invite you to read more below about Dan and his many contributions to our community. 

Sincerely,

Val Smith
Swarthmore College President
Roy J. and Linda G. Shanker Presidential Chair

In Honor of Former Vice President Dan West

Former vice president for development and alumni relations Dan C. West died on Monday, March 30, at 86. With his passing, the Swarthmore community has lost one of its most dedicated and skilled champions. 

A native Texan, West graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas. After a year at the University of Texas, he attended the U.S. Naval Academy for three years before resigning his commission to pursue a ministry career. 

West earned a B.A. in history at Austin College in Sherman, Tex., where he met and later married Sidney Claire Childs in 1963. He also earned a B.Div. from Union Theological Seminary, a D.Div. from Vanderbilt University, and an Ed.D. from Harvard University.

From 1965 to 1968, Dan served as the minister of Smyrna Presbyterian Church in Smyrna, Tenn. He returned to Austin College as director of church relations and became president of what is now Lyon College in Batesville, Ark., where he served for 16 years. He later became president of Carroll College in Waukesha, Wis., and then served as vice president for development at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y. At Union, he directed a capital campaign that raised more than $150 million and doubled annual giving.

West joined the Swarthmore community in 1999. In his role, he presided over a period of significant growth in both the College’s fundraising and the size of its endowment. In 2006, The Meaning of Swarthmore capital campaign closed its books on schedule with $15 million more than the original $230 million goal, then the College’s most ambitious. The following year, Swarthmore’s endowment was $1.4 billion, up from just under $1 billion when West first arrived. He also helped launch the Richard Rubin Scholar Mentor Program, among other initiatives.

West’s approach to raising money was straightforward: “You make a case for your institution, and you ask people to support it,” he said. “The case for Swarthmore is plain. Its alumni understand the need for this college, and they understand how expensive it is to provide this kind of quality.”

In recognition of the hundreds of events for parents and alumni that West and his wife, Sidney, graciously hosted at their campus home, Gil Kemp ’72 honored both of them by creating the Dan and Sidney West House Endowment to support the maintenance and programs of the residence and gardens. An anonymous donor also established a scholarship in both their names — awarded on the basis of financial need and academic merit, with a preference for students from Arkansas, Oklahoma, or Texas — to reflect their appreciation, respect, and affection for them, and to honor their significant accomplishments at the institutional, community, and personal level. 

In 2008, the Wests retired to Atlanta, Ga., though Dan came out of retirement for almost a year to serve as interim vice president for development at Agnes Scott College, where had served on the board. He also published a memoir, Causeway to a Bigger World (Mountain Arbor Press, 2018).

Upon his retirement, West calculated that he had attended 175 board meetings and more than 1,500 president’s staff meetings at the five colleges he had served — not including the dozen years on the Agnes Scott board. “And I dislike meetings,” he said, laughing. “They keep you from doing the real work.”