West Family Teaching Lab, S1332
This space is officially named in gratitude of the generosity of Moine ’73 and Mabel West.
Tribute
Moine Irving West ’73 was raised on a small family dairy farm in southwest Missouri. Moine’s father, Melvin, is an ordained minister whose pastoral focus has always been on service to others. He and his wife Barbara have supported and served several global Non-Governmental Organizations, including The Rainbow Network, an integrated development project in Nicaragua, and the PET Mobility Project of Missouri that builds and distributes Worldwide a specially designed self-propelled vehicle for those who lost leg power due to polio, land mines, etc. Moine also supported these projects and many more.
Moine attended Grinnell College with an academic focus on philosophy and a wide range of social sciences. After Grinnell, he spent time traveling through Mexico studying intensive Spanish. He received his M.A. degree in International Business and Economics with a focus on Latin America from Columbia University's Graduate School of International Affairs. He later moved to Bogotá, Colombia to join Deere & Company's Latin American sales division. Moine met and married Mabel Vargas Alcazar, a Bogotá native. They have two sons, Martin and Aaron, both are bilingual and work in the technology industry. Sadly, Moine lost his long battle against cancer on November 17, 2017.
Moine and Mabel have also focused their philanthropy on support for students interested in working for an international Non-Governmental Organization through the Moine ’73 and Mabel West International Internship Endowed Fund. The Wests made this gift to honor Moine’s parents.