Donor Profiles

Kirby Benson
Kirby Benson is one of the founding members of the Ralph Waldo Emerson Legacy Society. The Emerson Society is a group of individuals who have remembered SC in their estate plans. Kirby lives in Las Cruces and was involved with the founders of SC in its earliest days of development.

Kirby Benson

“The College was a dream of Dr. Neva Dell Hunter. When I met Dr. Hunter in Alamogordo in 1969, I also met Robert Waterman, who had recently begun his studies with her. Dr. Hunter saw in Robert the potential to bring a new educational vision into the world. When we birthed the College on September 23, 1976, I suspect none of us knew the beautiful reality that the dream would someday become. The spiritual awareness that the men and women who graduate from SC carry forward is vitally important and needed in these troubled times on our planet. In fact, it is my belief that only through the efforts of institutions such as SC can we truly build a ‘new heaven and a new earth.'

“Dr. Hunter passed away just after Quimby College was dedicated. I was devastated by Neva’s death. The College at that time was cobbled together in a couple of homes in the neighborhood. By then my involvement had ended, and I moved away from Alamogordo. In 1979 the College moved to Santa Fe because, I believe, it was a greater area of attraction for the many people who were coming down from Santa Fe to attend it.

"I have been an artist and an art instructor by profession since 1967. My area is pottery, and I have an MFA from Washington State University. In 1988 I went back to school to get my MA in Counseling from NMSU and spent the two years following graduation directing an adult inpatient psychiatric program and then on into private practice for several years, stepping back from that in 1998. I am going to retire my New Mexico LPCC this year.

“In 1999 I got involved with the Mankind Project, an initiation experience for men that teaches integrity, accountability and connection to feeling. We have trained 25,000 men in 25 centers throughout the US and in Canada, London, Paris, Germany, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Our goal is to empower men to missions of service and assist them in moving past barriers to find and achieve their individual life mission. Now my main focus is on the Mankind Project and painting. Currently, I am the Elder Chairman for the ManKind Project International and I’m off to London in November to help develop an elder counsel there. This position does require a good bit of travel, which I do enjoy, and the rewards are immense.

 “Several SC alumni have gone through the MKPI program and have continued involvement with it: Jan Unna, Art Panaro and Ken Reid. My connection to SC and reason for being a founding member of the Emerson Society is that every day I get up, I am grateful to Neva Dell Hunter. She saved my life and directed me on my spiritual path so that I could fulfill my destiny.”

Dianna Woods ‘97
“During my six years at Southwestern College, I was raising my young son and teaching elementary school part-time. I thought parenting and teaching were beyond me because I found classroom management difficult and long-term commitment impossible. Now, 14 years after I began my masters program at Southwestern, I have a fine grown son ready to enter college, a full-time teaching job which I love, and a real estate business which is fun and actually pays for everything that my teaching salary does not.

Dianna Woods and former President Marylou Butler, Ph.D.

“These are little miracles that I credit to my education at Southwestern College and the concepts that rang so true for me in an atmosphere of unconditional positive regard. Beyond those miracles are the bigger ones. On the level of consciousness, mindfulness, and choice, Southwestern College, with its spirit, its energy, and its teachers, transformed my life. My life is full of joy and I have the tools to deal with adversity. I watch my own growth into my true Self.”

Dianna Woods ’97 has named Southwestern College a beneficiary in her will and has joined the Ralph Waldo Emerson Legacy Society, which benefits the long-term endowment of the College. Many thanks, Dianna!