Jim Kigin ’75 has been living abroad in Paris for 45 years now.
And while the St. Cloud native tries to include a stop at CSB and SJU when he returns to Central Minnesota each summer, those visits typically come in July or August – too late to take part in Reunion Weekend celebrations.
The only reunion he’s actually attended came 30 years ago, and that was in the early fall. But with his 50th class anniversary scheduled for this year, he rearranged plans to make sure he’d be there.
“I made sure to set my ticket for these dates,” Kigin said. “It’s our 50th. That’s a big deal. There was no way I wasn’t coming back for that!”
This year’s Reunion Weekend – honoring class years ending in 0s and 5s – is scheduled for June 26-28. Registration remains open, but already well over 1,000 alums are signed up and close to 1,500 are expected to attend.
“What I love best is watching the power of alums reconnecting with each other and these beloved institutions,” said Valerie Jones ’94, the executive director of alumnae relations at CSB.
“Both of those connections are a powerful testament to the holistic kinds of experiences we had here when we were students learning, growing and exploring. They help remind us of what we hope when we support today’s Bennies and Johnnies. Reunion unleashes a nostalgia that makes you want to invest in the future. And it’s just an exceptionally good time … every minute of every day, all weekend long.”
“Reunion weekend is a powerful expression of the lifelong connection our alums feel to Saint Ben’s and Saint John’s,” added Adam Herbst ’99, executive director of university relations at SJU. “Welcoming alums and friends back to campus reminds us that this community doesn’t end at graduation. It grows stronger with time, shared memories and experiences across generations, and the joy of coming together back on campus.”
It’s doubtful anyone will be coming further than Kigin, who first saw Paris when he studied abroad at the prestigious Sorbonne University as a junior at SJU.
“Saint John’s encourages students to go abroad and learn,” Kigin said. “So I did that my junior year and it changed my life.
“I fell in love with Paris. It’s such a beautiful city with a rich history. It’s international. I met people from all over the world. And it was close to everything so you could travel around.”
Following his graduation from SJU, Kigin returned to Paris to study and teach. He earned a Master’s Degree and D.E.A. in French literature at the Sorbonne, then came back to Collegeville to teach French for a year. But in 1980, he returned to Paris where he and his wife raised three sons.
“I was working at a language school outside Paris,” he said. “We had corporate clients. One of the other guys there knew how to program computers and my boss was also a technician. So together we invented the first method of teaching English on a computer with sound and I became responsible for selling it.
“We synchronized the text and sound using an Apple II computer and a Walkman, and soon after ported the program to a PC and a language lab tape player.”
The venture proved so successful they were eventually bought out by a larger corporation – Mediaconcept – putting the method on to CD ROM with Kigin continuing on as sales and marketing manager. The success on CD ROM led to another takeover by a subsidiary of French Telecom Multimedia, with the method being adapted for online access and Kigin becoming the international sales manager.
In 2004, Kigin took over as business development manager for the language-learning publisher VOCABLE, helping lead its digital transformation.
He retired in 2019 but stays active as an executive English coach and as a volunteer board member of the Association of Americans Resident Overseas (AARO), a non-partisan group focusing on issues facing U.S. citizens living abroad.
That includes areas like voting rights, taxation, driver’s license reciprocity, health insurance concerns and banking questions.
“I was asked to join the board 20 years ago by a friend who was a board member at the time,” he said. “I’m kind of a networker and she thought I’d be useful when it came to recruiting new members and going to Washington, D.C., to advocate for our causes.”
But through the years, his love for CSB and SJU and the people he met there has remained unchanged.
“I’m really looking forward to catching up with my classmates,” he said, looking ahead to Reunion Weekend. “I’ve got a lot of people I’m looking forward to seeing.
“These reunions are special because they’re a way of going back to your roots. Meeting up with old classmates and bringing back memories. It helps us remember where we came from and how we became who we are today.”
Jim Kigin