The president of Wyoming Catholic College will resign at the end of the academic year, according to a news release.

Kevin Roberts told the college at the end of a lecture Friday that he loves the school and Lander, but has a larger commitment, he said.

"Nonetheless, my primary vocation is to my own wife and children, who have graciously borne my considerable absences over the past few years," Roberts said.

"Consequently, I have had to make the difficult decision to put my vocation as father and husband ahead of my avocation as executive of Wyoming Catholic College and will be stepping down as President following Commencement this year," he said.

The Lander-based college is the only four-year institution of higher learning in the state besides the University of Wyoming.

Roberts named academic dean Glenn Arbery as interim president. The college's board had already approved the appointment.

Arbery has been associate professor of humanities since first coming to the college in 2013. He has taught at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, the University of Dallas, and at Assumption College in Worcester, Mass.

“I hope to bolster our standing as a Catholic liberal arts college with a unique mission: nowhere else does a Great Books curriculum build upon the experience of wonder in the outdoors and incorporate training in leadership," he said in the news release.

Roberts will remain active with the college and serve on its board of directors. He will move to Austin, Texas, where he he has accepted a position as executive vice president of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, with the mission "to promote and defend liberty, personal responsibility, and free enterprise in Texas and the nation."

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