A record-setting gift from Trustee Kevin Hoben ’65 launches a new academic building and honors a lifetime of connection
In 1996, Kevin Hoben ’65 arrived for his first day of work at the Westfield offices of Mestek, Inc., already a successful sales and marketing executive in the industrial manufacturing sector. Mestek’s revered chairman, John Reed ’33, then in his mid-80s, had recruited Hoben to head up a new subsidiary at his heating and air-conditioning equipment company, and after formally introducing him to the other senior executives, personally walked his new director from the boardroom to Hoben’s new office. Taking in the view of the nearby roadway, Hoben turned to Reed and said, “John, this is really so coincidental because I can remember driving by this building on my way to school.”
“What school?” asked Reed.
“Williston Academy, in Easthampton, Massachusetts,” replied Hoben.
“You went to Williston?” said Reed, unaware of the shared connection until that very moment. “Well, I went to Williston, and I’m on the Board of Trustees!”
And so began what Hoben describes as a very special relationship, one that would have profound consequences for the fortunes of both Mestek and Williston. While working at Mestek, Hoben learned that John Reed’s support had allowed the school to transform its aging recreation center, home to the gymnasium and swimming pool, into what became the Reed Campus Center in 1996. Now, after his own successful career at the Mestek spin-off Omega Flex, Hoben—an All-American swimmer who had spent countless hours training in that rec center pool—has given Williston the largest gift in the school’s history. His $10 million donation will help launch the construction of a new academic building, adjacenet to the Campus Center that bears his mentor’s name.
“I really wanted to do something remarkable, something that would be defining for the school and put it on a more powerful trajectory,” Hoben explains. “In terms of attracting new students, there’s nothing like a nice new building.”
The record-setting gift caps a long list of contributions from Hoben, who in 1998 followed in John Reed’s footsteps and became a school Trustee. He is now the board’s longest-serving member. He has been vice chairman since 2001, held numerous committee positions, and provided generous support to several school campaigns, including the 2005 construction of the pool named for his swimming coach, Wilmot Babcock, and the recent Williston Builds campaign, which he co-chaired. For his efforts he received the school’s Distinguished Service Award in 2015.
Indeed, it was Hoben’s deep familiarity with the school that sparked this latest initiative. “We had a real need for new classrooms,” he says. “We had talked about building this building, and I was tired of going to these board meetings and just talking about it. So, finally, I just said, Look, I’m going to make a lead gift, and let’s get this building built.”
That enthusiasm for investing in new ideas has also marked Hoben’s professional career. After earning a degree in business from Union College, serving in the National Guard, and briefly teaching algebra at his hometown high school, Hoben accepted a position with Atlantic Richfield, where he was put through a 16-month training program. At its conclusion, he had to decide which aspect of the business to pursue. “The sales guys would be coming in from the field quite often, and they would take me out to lunch,” he recalls. “They were all cool guys. I decided that sales and marketing was what I wanted.”
After holding a number of positions at Atlantic Richfield, he moved on to Smiths Industries, the United Kingdom–based engineering conglomerate, where Hoben learned that, as he puts it, “the lifeblood of any manufacturing company is new products.” Among the products that he helped develop was a strong but flexible metal pipe that could replace traditional rigid steel piping for conveying liquids and gases. The innovation was rapidly gaining attention in the HVAC industry, so much so that Hoben was soon contacted by John Reed, whose company was interested in buying the division that made it.
That deal didn’t work out, but in 1996 Reed was able to recruit Hoben to Mestek, where they both discovered their Williston connection. At Hoben’s recommendation, the company purchased Tofle America, which Hoben knew produced a similar corrugated flexible pipe. Mestek paid roughly $12 million for the business and renamed it Omega Flex. By 2020, under Hoben’s leadership, the company’s value had risen to just under $2 billion, with sales expanding in the United Kingdom, Europe, and beyond. In 2005, Mestek decided to spin off Omega Flex as a publicly traded company with Hoben as CEO. “That gave me the financial capacity to make the gift I’m giving now,” he says.
Today, as Omega Flex’s executive chairman, Hoben is still involved in the company but has handed off most of the day-to-day responsibilities. At age 79, he says he is “trying very, very hard to retire,” dividing his time between homes in Fort Lauderdale and Watch Hill, Rhode Island. He still has the drive that, as a student, allowed him to swim 10 miles a day and earn All-American recognition his senior year, but today that energy is channeled in new directions, including his considerable work on behalf of Williston. Interestingly, after captaining the swim team at Union, Hoben says he never swam another lap. It was just too isolating. “You can’t talk to anybody,” he explains. “What I like about swimming pools today is standing in three-foot-deep water with a cocktail in my hand.”
Making the lead gift for the new academic building is Hoben’s way of honoring his long and rewarding relationship with John Reed, a connection that continues through John’s son and fellow Trustee, Stewart Reed ’66. But ultimately, the $10 million donation is Hoben’s way of giving back, and of knowing that his success will help change lives.
“You wake up one morning, and you realize that you’ve had a professional lifetime of accomplishments and achievements, and a couple of dollars in the bank,” he says. “And so the big question is, What do you do with it? I wasn’t interested in buying private jets and that sort of thing. I wanted to do something that was going to benefit other people. I wanted to do this one thing. It’s significant. I can afford to do it. I want to do it. And I know it’s going to make Williston a better place.”
