Tetsu Kimura ’81 came to Randolph-Macon College to play soccer, and halfway across the globe from his native Japan, found a community of support that launched a successful multinational life and career.

In the courtyard of Duncan Memorial United Methodist Church, Tetsu Kimura ’81 placed flowers at the final resting place of Ira L. Andrews ’59, the beloved Randolph-Macon professor and Dean of Students. While burning traditional Japanese incense, he stood next to Andrews’ wife Anne while they prayed with RMC Chaplain Kendra Grimes.

It was a serene and powerful scene, and an important one for Kimura, who over 40 years after graduating from Randolph-Macon was determined to pay his respects to one of the people who provided foundational support as he forged a college career thousands of miles from his native Japan.

Kimura’s journey to RMC was winding, and often ran through a soccer field. He was a successful player at the high school level in Japan—including representing his state in a national tournament—but wasn’t selected for a higher level. Instead of pursuing college in Japan, he chose a different, more adventurous path.

A family friend lived in Wenatchee, Washington, so Kimura crossed the Pacific and attended American high school for a year, receiving a second high school diploma. From there, he continued east, staying with a distant cousin in Short Pump, Virginia. He took courses at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College during the day and worked at a Jack in the Box at night.

On weekends, he’d play soccer with the German American Sports Club, which is where he entered the radar of Helmut Werner, the legendary RMC soccer coach. The Yellow Jackets played a preseason scrimmage against the German Americans, who had an RMC alumnus on the roster. After seeing him play, Werner offered Kimura a scholarship to RMC.

Kimura was a standout defender for RMC, leading the Yellow Jackets to a 46-14-4 record during his career. He was named an Honorable Mention All-American after the 1979 season and in 2010, was inducted into the RMC Athletics Hall of Fame.

Off the field, Kimura majored in religion, partly inspired by his time in Washington, where his host family were devout Southern Baptists who attended church three times per week. The experience stood in contrast to his upbringing in Japan, where Kimura described religious occasions as being accepted as more secular practices than spiritual pursuits. 

At RMC, he took courses taught by B.J. Seymour, the College’s first full-time female faculty member, including a J-Term trip to Israel.

“I took it mostly as a cultural comparison study between Japan and the U.S.,” Kimura explained. “And it was also my feeling that if I study Judeo-Christianity, I may be able to understand the U.S.’s culture and history better.”

Attending a college in a foreign country miles from home can be a daunting challenge. Kimura credits the support of Seymour, Werner, and especially Andrews for helping him navigate it.

“He generally looked after and over me,” Kimura recalled of Andrews. “Even though he was not the kind of person who would come to you and say ‘how are you doing? Is everything good?’ But he was there when I needed, and I think he was there even when I didn’t know he was helping me.”

Kimura shares a memory of a time when he broke his leg in his final home soccer game; after a weeklong hospital stay, it was Andrews who picked him up and brought him back to campus. During his first year at RMC, Kimura—already operating with English as a second language—struggled with his Spanish class, which filled a language requirement. By the next academic year, that requirement had been dropped for international students. Kimura suspected (but could never confirm) that was the result of Andrews’ influence. Regardless, it underscored the support he felt from RMC faculty and staff.

“I was treated very fairly,” Kimura reflected. “Everybody has a different background, everybody has strengths and weaknesses. I was able to go through four years with support and understanding from all the faculty, including Coach Werner, Dean Andrews, and B.J. Seymour. Those are three names that I always think about.”

Kimura also felt support from his classmates, particularly his soccer teammates, many of whom were also his roommates and fraternity brothers in Theta Chi. When the school closed for holidays, Kimura would spend the breaks with his fraternity brothers’ families, making him feel welcome in an otherwise lonely situation and further strengthening those bonds.

“I feel indebted to the larger RMC community for providing me with invaluable opportunities to develop lasting relationships with families who continue to regard me as their ‘Japanese son,’” Kimura said. “Recalling those holidays and school breaks spent with different families, and being a member of their everyday life together, I believe that prepared me well for my eventual career in global companies where diversity is the norm.”

After a robust Randolph-Macon experience full of intellectual pursuits, athletic success, and the occasional party, Kimura was presented with another crossroads as he looked for employment. Without a visa, he was unable to remain in the U.S., forcing him to return to Japan. At the time, it was uncommon for Japanese nationals to receive American education, making it difficult to get a foot in the door at major Japanese companies with his unorthodox resume.

But soon Kimura found a niche by leveraging his English-language skills, working for ISS, Inc., a language services firm. There, he worked on project assignment contracts across the globe, helping facilitate engineering, procurement, and construction projects undertaken by major Japanese engineering firms, including oil refineries in Nigeria and Iran, and an airport in Burma (now Myanmar).

This was just the beginning of a multinational career. Kimura went on to work in the IT industry for 25 years for companies like IBM, Symantec, and Schneider Electric in their respective Japanese divisions. He rose to the level of senior leadership, overseeing areas as diverse as human resources, sales, legal, operations, and project bid compliance management.

In reflecting on his career, Kimura can identify the foundations of what made him successful from his time at RMC: a broad education, a major that gave him a perspective on different peoples and cultures of the world, and the ability to connect with others, fostered through his involvement on campus.

“In an organization or company, each department or section has to be specialized, but there has to be some management which will put them together in a cohesive and synchronized way, so that we can go in the same direction together,” Kimura explained. “Liberal arts prepared me to do that role because even though I don’t know the deep skill or knowledge, I will have a taste of everything. The ability to comprehend from a bird’s eye view helped me.”

Now retired, Kimura returns to the States with some regularity to connect with old friends and pay respects to his mentors. In 2023, he attended a memorial service celebrating the life of Helmut Werner. As part of his trip in 2024, he attended a Theta Chi reunion with dozens of fraternity brothers and professor emeritus Dr. James Scanlon, who served as the organization’s advisor. “He spent three hours with us, and I think he had a great time,” Kimura said.

Having had the chance to honor Werner the year before, it was also of huge importance for Kimura on his most recent trip to Virginia to visit the final resting places of Werner, Andrews, and Seymour, as a grateful alumnus who still feels the impact of their mentorship four decades later.

“Those three people are the only reason I’m here, and I think the only reason I was able to survive in multinational, very competitive, global companies,” Kimura reflected on Andrews, Werner, and Seymour. “I cannot say enough about them.”