Out of the Ordinary: From Meeting Presidents to Surviving 9/11, Family Still Comes First for Kipling Oren
Written by Doug Goodnough
Kipling Oren, ’94, looks like an ordinary, mild-mannered, Clark Kent-like commercial real estate lawyer by day.
But there is nothing ordinary about Oren. From his advocacy for helping children with brain disorders to his unique history of meeting former presidents to surviving the tragedy of 9/11, there’s more than meets the eye.
Then there’s the Richard Nixon “museum” in his home.
“Yes, I know it’s weird,” Oren said of the large collection of memorabilia of the 37th president that his wife is trying to contain to just one room—and failing. “I’m self-aware that it’s a weird hobby. But he was a world statesman unparalleled. Other than Baroness Thatcher—I am a Hillsdale guy and I am probably contractually obligated to say that—but it is also true. Margaret Thatcher and Richard Nixon were both top shelf.”
Oren has seemed to take an indirect route to live his life, but it has worked for him. His path to Hillsdale started while he was serving an internship in Washington, D.C., as a 19-year-old college student at Bob Jones University. After completing his first semester at Bob Jones, he asked his older sister to help him “get out of there.”
“Let’s just say that that place wasn’t for me,” he said.
Growing up in Muncie, Indiana, his family was friends with the political family of Dan Quayle, who happened to be the sitting vice president at the time.
“She calls up her contacts at Dan’s Quayle’s office, and I go from the proverbial outhouse to the White House,” Oren said of his sister’s efforts of getting him a D.C. internship.
He was one of 20 or so interns working in the Office of the Vice President. He was located in the assistant secretary of the Navy’s former office suite in what is now the Eisenhower Executive Office Building within the White House compound.
“I had no business being there, sitting at one of six desks in Teddy Roosevelt’s old office,” he said. “But it was a great experience. It really helped me.”
He had a “front-row seat” to the start of the Gulf War in January of 1991, which started a week after beginning his internship.
“You turn on the TV in the office, and President Bush is giving a speech in the Rose Garden just 200 yards away,” he said.
When former President Ronald Reagan visited D.C. on the 10th anniversary of his assassination attempt, he was making a courtesy call to the White House. Oren thought he would have a chance to meet the former president.
“I was all set to go over with all the other interns for a photo op in the Rose Garden,” he said. “And I’m walking out the door and someone grabs me and says, ‘No, you need to answer phones.’”
However, his supervisor pulled him aside and told him that Reagan was taking a back route and to follow him.
“I go and [President Reagan] comes right down the hall, and there he is, bigger than life,’ he said. “I am shaking Reagan’s hand, and there is a White House photographer there that snaps off four pictures. I got an autographed copy, and have all four from the Bush Library.”
However, returning to college still loomed, and Oren was looking at options. His parents received Imprimis and were fans of Hillsdale College, so Oren again went to Vice President Quayle, who sent a letter of recommendation to the College.
Enrolling at Hillsdale in the fall of 1991, Oren majored in history and went back to D.C. for the Washington-Hillsdale Internship Program. He became friends with former professor Dr. Tom Conner, whom he still visits from time to time.
“Doc and I took a memorable trip to Manhattan many years ago before I lived there,” he said. “As thousands will attest, to know Doc is to love him. And, let’s face it, it’s also nice being friends with the Big Man on Campus.”
One of his Simpson dorm suitemates, Masato Yoshimatsu, ’95, a native of Japan, passed away during one summer break, and Oren was asked to give the eulogy. It left a lasting impression.
“To me, it’s the friendships,” said Oren of his Hillsdale experience. “Those were the best times of my life.”
After Hillsdale, Oren decided he wanted to live in New York City. He thought a career as a lawyer would get him there. He enrolled at the University of Miami (Florida) School of Law, and briefly roomed with an undergraduate music major who years later became his wife.
After graduating from law school in 1998, Oren moved to the New York City area to begin his legal career.
On a Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, Oren rushed out the door of his Jersey City residence to take the train to his Manhattan office.
“It was the last train that stopped and let out passengers at the World Trade Center that morning,” Oren said of that fateful day. “I got off the train, and there was this intense smell of kerosene.”
It was actually jet fuel.
Unbeknownst to Oren at the time, American Airlines Flight 11 had already hit the North Tower, dousing many below with jet fuel. People were just starting to realize what had happened.
He ducked into a service hallway and was quickly redirected to the farthest exit heading north underground.
“I came up at Chambers Street, and I looked up and saw this huge gash in the building,” he said of his view of the World Trade Center. “I got on my horse and got the hell out of there.”
He eventually went to his office, but not before seeing workers exiting the Javits Federal Building in a panic—United Airlines Flight 175 had hit the South Tower while Oren was on foot across town. Oren soon realized the magnitude of the event and returned home to New Jersey.
“I have a strong bond for New York that will never die because I saw that city come together under great leadership,” he said.
Despite his love of New York, his life took a turn to Texas. After his first marriage ended, he reconnected with Kim, who also was divorced and living in Austin. The couple eventually married and are raising two boys from a blended family. Their oldest son, Jordin, is a college sophomore who suffers from a rare brain condition called agenesis of the corpus callosum. This is a condition in which the tissue that connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain is partially or completely missing. Oren currently volunteers as a board member for the National Organization for Disorders of the Corpus Callosum, helping to raise funds, awareness, and support for those families dealing with those who have the condition.
Their youngest son, Shafer, also has special needs. The 14-year-old had transient pediatric epilepsy, and Oren, who now conducts his law career from their Austin home, devotes much of his time to providing care to whom he affectionately calls “El Jefe” (aka The Boss).
“I’m devoting time every day to his education now that he is up and going,” Oren said of Shafer’s care. “There was a period where he wasn’t learning because of his health challenges. I’m making up for lost time. I want to teach him what Russell Kirk called the ‘Permanent Things,’ the things I learned at Hillsdale College. That’s really been my focus. Our careers have taken a back seat to our two boys, but we would not have it any other way. It’s why Kim and I were put on this earth. Life has been an adventure, sometimes messy, sometimes chaotic, never dull. We are in a good situation now.”
He and Kim are in the process of converting to Catholicism, and he said other than the church, “I don’t think there is a more important institution in this country” than Hillsdale College.
Doug Goodnough, ’90, is Hillsdale’s director of Alumni Marketing. He enjoys connecting with fellow alumni in new and wonderful ways.
Published in May 2023