In Memoriam

Samuel Greydanus

Samuel Greydanus joined the history department at Calvin in 1967. He spent 21 years at his alma mater, helping to expand the department’s offerings.

Greydanus died Feb. 14. He was 92.

“Sam and I began our careers teaching history at Calvin at the same time,” said former colleague Bert de Vries. “But I came in as a total untrained novice teacher while he was hired because of his expertise and reputation as a high school history teacher. I never lost that awe and respect for him because he was a teacher of teachers.”

Greydanus’ key contribution to the department was establishing courses on various cultural and ethnic groups. During his tenure, courses in Black, Native American, West African and Canadian history were added to the college catalog.

“Sam Greydanus was a man who persevered,” said former colleague Robert Bolt. “He persevered in his concern for the underdog or the less privileged. This concern was reflected in some of the courses he taught, courses that dealt with the history of Afro-Americans or Native Americans.”

His teaching continued well into retirement at the Michigan Dunes Correctional Facility near his home in Saugatuck, Michigan.

He is survived by his wife, Elsie; children, Bonnie, Sam (Susan), John (Marty), Mark, Tim (Sarah), James (Judy), Dave (Melissa), and Dale (Kelly); and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Stephen Monsma

Stephen Monsma was a man committed to helping Christians think and act more faithfully in their civic and political life. And he spent almost 20 years at Calvin College doing just that.

Monsma, 80, died Feb. 18.

Monsma’s dedicated career of service was bookended by time spent at Calvin College. After graduating from Calvin in 1958, Georgetown University and Michigan State University, he returned to Calvin to teach in the political science department from 1967 to 1974. He returned to west Michigan from 2004–2016 to assume the role of senior research fellow at Calvin’s Paul B. Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics.

In the three decades in between, Monsma was a member of the Michigan House of Representatives, Michigan Senate and a professor at Pepperdine University.

“Steve was a first-rate scholar who combined his experience in the nitty-gritty of policymaking and politics with a deeply biblical vision of public justice,” said Kevin den Dulk, director of the Henry Institute. “He was especially concerned with how government might partner with civil society to advance the social welfare of the least advantaged.”

In recognizing the contentiousness of politics and its effect on civil discourse, Monsma’s tact was marked by humility, grace and a strong Christian faith.

“Steve was a gentleman and a scholar in the truest sense of those words,” said former colleague Corwin Smidt. “His ultimate identity was not some partisan label, but his Christian faith.”

Monsma is survived by his wife, Mary; children, Martin (Elizabeth), Kristin (Patrick); and four grandchildren.

Jack Wiersma

At a time when few people had taken an interest in special education, Jack Wiersma championed the cause. His advocacy, along with former Calvin colleague Gil Besselsen’s, helped establish the special education program at Calvin in 1975.

Wiersma, 81, died April 1.

He began his career at Calvin as an education professor in 1968, a year after his son was born with Down syndrome. “Options for education back then weren’t very good,” Wiersma said in a 2011 interview. “When it’s your family, you start to think differently.”

Wiersma, along with Besselsen, decided to offer an interim course, “Laboratory in Special Education,” in 1970, to see if there was interest among Calvin students. The class immediately filled. The duo then worked tirelessly to establish a program.

Wiersma and his wife, Dottie, were also the key figures behind the publication by the Christian Reformed Church of the Friendship Curriculum, which is used in the faith nurture of adults with intellectual disability.

“This was visionary work and its fruit is the existence today of close to a thousand groups in both English- and Spanishspeaking countries with more than 10,000 individuals using these materials worldwide,” said a former colleague.

During his tenure at Calvin, Wiersma also taught many educational psychology classes, and toward the end of his career he specialized in supervising student teachers.

Wiersma is survived by his wife, Dottie, and children—Calvin (Katherine), Susan (Bruce), Gordon (Anne) and Sherman— as well as eight grandchildren.

Don Wilson

“When I talk of how I want to be remembered, I’m not so concerned that people say he was a good teacher; I also want them to say he was my friend,” said sociology professor emeritus Don Wilson during an interview after receiving Calvin’s Faith and Learning Award in 2008.

Wilson, who taught sociology at Calvin for 34 years, died Feb. 12. He was 86.

He joined the sociology department in 1962 as the college’s first anthropologist.

Outside of the classroom, he was known for his postcard writing, which was a ministry of encouragement. He had a list of more than 6,000 people whom he wrote regularly. Throughout his lifetime he wrote and mailed more than 100,000 postcards to students, former students, colleagues and friends.

Wilson was also a staunch supporter of Calvin athletics, so much so that in 1996 he was named the NCAA III Sears Diehard Fan of the Year. In his 34 years at Calvin, he missed only one home Calvin basketball game and never missed an MIAA track and field championship. By his own estimate, he attended nearly 100 Calvin sporting events a year, most with his wife, Hilda, at his side.

“I remember Don as a great storyteller and masterful teacher, blessed with a clever and engaging sense of humor,” said former colleague Peter De Jong. “He was a creative and gifted thinker whose lectures and writings invited us to rethink our assumptions and current understandings.”

Wilson is survived by his children, Sarah Hardy and David Wilson (Beth Tibbets), and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.