Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research.

Use Restrictions

Permission to publish material from Warm Hearth Village Records must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.

Preferred Citation

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Warm Hearth Village Records, Ms2007-002, Special Collections, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was donated Special Collections in 2006.

Processing Information

The processing, arrangement, and description of the Warm Hearth Village Records was completed in October 2013.

Biographical Note

Wybe Kroontje was born in the Netherlands in 1922. He was part of the Dutch resistance during World War II and came to the United States after the War. He received his B.S. at Cornell University and earned his PhD from the University of Nebraska. He joined the VPI faculty in 1956 in agronomy. He served as the first president of the Faculty Senate at VPI.

Kroontje retired from Virginia Tech in 1987, and turned his full attention to the project he started with his wife Marietje in the early 1970s: the Warm Hearth Village retirement community in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Source consulted: Strother, Warren H., From VPI to State University: President T. Marshall Hahn Jr. and the Transformation of Virginia Tech 1962-1974, (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2004).

Scope and Content

This collection includes documents related to the creation of the Warm Hearth Village retirement community in Blacksburg, Virginia. Warm Hearth Village was founded by Wybe Kroontje (a former Virginia Tech professor) and his wife Marietje. The collection includes communication with V.P.I., designs and plans for the community, the projects HUD proposal, among other documents relating to Warm Hearth Village's establishment in the early 1970s. Warm Hearth Village is still in operation today.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in subject files.

Index Terms

Persons:

• Kroontje, Wybe

Corporate Names:

• Warm Hearth Village. (Blacksburg, Va.)

Subjects:

• Blacksburg (Va.)
• Local/Regional History and Appalachian South
• Montgomery County (Va.)
• University History
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University