HERITAGE
(graduated more than 50 years ago)
Lugene “Archie” Bazuin ’47 and Ellie Jansma Bazuin ’48 met at Calvin, and on June 9, they celebrated 70 years of marriage. They’re retired now after serving churches in Iowa, Illinois, Colorado, and in Munster, Indiana, where they ministered at Second Christian Reformed Church for 27 years. After retiring from that church, Archie became a chaplain at Village Woods retirement center in Crete, Illinois, until he retired a second time at the age of 88. For many years he also spoke at Bible conferences from coast to coast. The Bazuins’ anniversary celebration took placeat Hartsfield Village in Munster, where they now live.
Jack Van Der Slik ’58 has authored a timely new book, The Korean Crisis: One People, Two Nations, A World on the Brink. Published by WildBlue Press, the book examines the 70-year separation and rivalry of the two Koreas and asks, “Can a viable condition for reconciliation be obtained?” Professor emeritus of political studies and public a airs at the University of Illinois Springfield, Jack has written several books on international and domestic politics. (Available at the Calvin Campus Store.)
1960s
Dennis Tolsma ’61 has retired from Kaiser Permanente—again. He retired the first time in 2012 as founding director emeritus of Kaiser Permanente’s research center. When his successor left unexpectedly in 2015, he was asked to come out of retirement and serve as interim director. In the past three years he has rebranded it as the Center for Clinical and Outcomes Research and helped put a new director in place. He believes this will be a true retirement! Before Kaiser, Dennis spent 30 years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, where he still lives.
These 2nd VanderWerp dormmates Eric Evenhuis, Ken Klassen, Ron Bode, Don Batts, Jim Kos, George Heerema, Ray Slager, Ron Polinder, and Ken Van Iddekinge) have stayed connected since their graduation in 1968. Their friendship began in the fall of 1964 when all participated in “Project V.” The “V” stood for “Values,” and it was an experiment the college tried to see if 76 first-year students, chosen at random, housed together, and placed in the same sections of the same core classes would show more interest in and a better grasp of class content than students not in the project. There’s no report on the success of the project other than the lasting friendship of these classmates, who reconnected at their 50th reunion in May.
Rehoboth McKinley Christian Healthcare Services and Cibola Medical Foundation hosted a continuing medical education event and reunion of physicians who served several months at Rehoboth Christian Hospital during their senior year in medical training. Besides seminars by several of the attendees, the event featured tours of the Rehoboth Christian School campus—site of the original hospital— and the current healthcare facilities. Pictured, seated, from left: Rich Miyamoto, Cynthia Miyamoto, Beth Dykstra, Louise Vander Lugt. Standing, row 1, from left: Marcia Battjes Bos ’69, Betty Houtman Kamps ’64, Cobie Muller, Ellen Batts, Jim Knoll ’70, Karen Bouman, Bill Bouman ’59, Lee Vander Lugt ’68, Joyce Dykstra. Row 2, from left: Lois Bangma Meyer ’69, Don Batts ’68, Ron Mulder ’68, Jack Kamps ’57, Phil Kamps ’61, Jay Dykstra ’61, Marilyn Cok Gjeltema ’57. Row 3, from left: Gary Bos ’69, Bruce Muller ’64, Alden Dykstra ’88, Ken Gjeltema ’79. Row 4, from left: Eugene Corbett, Jim Meyer ’69, Jan Mulder, Bryan Kamps ’82, Russell Kamps ’14, Kristy Zietse Kamps ’14, Kyse Faber Kamps ’59, Gerald Robertson.
1970s
At the 2018 Tony Awards in June, Rich Hopper ’70 was one of the winners in the category “Best Revival of a Musical” for Once on This Island. Rich is one of the play’s producers. He was a 2016 Tony nominee in the same category for his production of Spring Awakening. On August 13, an original musical he helped produce, Gettin’ The Band Back Together, opened on Broadway.
Pepperdine University presented Carolyn Vos Strache ’71 its 2017–18 Women in Leadership Award at a banquet in March. She’s been at the school for 38 years, beginning as a professor of physical education. For the past 33 years she’s been an administrator—Pepperdine’s longest-serving female administrator. Carolyn’s robust mentoring of students was especially commended in the award presentation.
Last October, Elizabeth A. Carlson ex’72 was awarded the Lucie S. Kelly Mentor Award at Sigma Theta Tau International’s 44th Biennial Convention. Currently professor and chair of the department of adult health and gerontological nursing at Rush College of Nursing, she has held a variety of clinical and academic positions at Rush University Medical Center since 1976. She’s also received a number awards for her leadership and was instrumental in the development of the Doctor of Nursing Practice program at Rush.
In February, David Timmer ’73 was installed as the Jacob and Gela Schnucker Sessler Chair in Philosophy and Religion at Central College in Pella, Iowa. David has taught in the religion department at the college since 1980 and has published works on medieval Jewish-Christian relations, Franciscan missionaries in colonial Mexico, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s life and thought, and more.
Ben Beversluis ’77 wrote the screenplay for the feature-length documentary From Wilderness to World Class: The Story of Holland, Michigan. The lm premiered to full houses in December at Holland’s Knickerbocker Theatre. Produced by the nonprofit Holland Film Group, the documentary traces core themes in Holland’s history as reflected in the people of Holland today. “The understanding of cultural history I learned from professors like Ron Wells is still paying off,” said Ben. After 30 years as a newspaper writer and editor in Grand Rapids and Holland, Ben is now a freelance writer and communications consultant.
Earl DeVries’78 was recently elected chairman of the San Bernardino (California) County Fish and Game Commission. An avid hunter and fisherman, Earl was first appointed to the commission in 2014 and counts it “an honor to serve our community in this way.”
Last November, Minnetonka, Minnesota elected a new mayor— Brad Wiersum ’75. Brad is no stranger to the city’s operations, having served on the city council since 2003 and on several municipal boards. Minnetonka is a suburban city of 52,000 residents, located about 10 miles west of downtown Minneapolis.
1980s
Barbara Rottman Hoogenboom ’83 was recently presented with the Distinguished Graduate Mentoring Award at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan. The award honors a faculty member who has shown outstanding service in mentoring graduate students in the research process, including their publications and presentations. A professor in the department of physical therapy, Barb has mentored more than 90 graduate students in their research as they completed the clinical doctorate in physical therapy at GVSU.
In a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 26, Senator Orrin Hatch paid tribute to Tom Jipping ’83, who served Hatch as a staff member on that committee for 15 years. “Tom is one of the true experts on judicial nominations,” the senator said. “He’s also handled a number of important bills, on topics ranging from disability law to religious freedom to art exhibitions.” In May, Tom became deputy director of the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C.
In April, Ken Koornneef ex’85 became the CEO of Nobis Engineering, headquartered in Concord, New Hampshire. Ken has been with the company for 29 of its 30 years in business, serving most recently as its president. Nobis Engineering is a multidisciplinary engineering consulting firm with other offices in Lowell, Massachusetts, and Naugatuck, Connecticut.
In April, Mike Bos ’85 became the new director of ticket operations for The College Football Playoffs, the organization overseeing the post- season play that determines a national champion for NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, the top level of college football in the United States. Before taking this position, Mike was senior associate athletics director at the University of Texas Austin.
Syllabic Press recently published That Said, a volume of new and selected poems by Robert Schreur ’85. The book collects poems from ten of his previously published volumes along with new poems. A 1993 PhD in English from Johns Hopkins University, Robert is a licensed clinical supervisor at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center; he also maintains a private psychotherapy practice.
Scott Brill ’89 is the new chief financial officer for Young Life, a global Christian outreach mission to middle school, high school, and college students. He comes to the organization from Target Corporation, where he held several senior-level positions. Of his new post, Scott said, “I can’t imagine a better organization where my financial skill set can put service first and help build God’s Kingdom!”
1990s
The law firm Foster Swift Collins & Smith recently elected attorney Jennifer Siebers Van Regenmorter ’90 in its Holland (Michigan) office to lead the firm’s health care practice group. She has also been recognized for her contributions to health care law in Best Lawyers in America 2018.
In March, Christy Anderson ’92 celebrated her 50th birthday with a trip to the United Kingdom. The day she arrived in London, a young woman saw her Calvin-branded backpack and asked if she was an alum. Eleosa Chong ’18 was in London on spring break and, like Christy, was looking for the entrance to Westminster Abbey’s evensong. The two eventually found it, enjoyed the service together, and discovered further connections:
Eleosa is from Seattle, where Christy lived until 2014, and Eleosa spent the summer of 2014 in Christy’s new hometown of Austin, Texas. “What a ridiculous set of coincidences,” said Christy. Or, in Brit-speak, “Mad!”
Dan Hoang ’92 has produced Jésus, le Don d’une Vie (Jesus, the Gift of a Life) in partnership with the French branch of Compassion International. Directed by his wife, Myriam, the musical theater piece features 36 cast members, including the couple’s nine-year-old son. It premiered at Théâtre André Malraux near Paris, where the 850 seats sold out a week before the performance. Dan had the opportunity to tell French president Emmanuel Macron about the show, which is now touring France through December 2019.
Stephen Scholler ’94, a senior vice president at Wells Fargo Financial Advisors in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has been recognized as a Best-in-State Wealth Advisor by Forbes for 2018. Steve has 24 years of experience in the financial services industry.
The University of Michigan Medical School has honored Scott Owens ’94 with the 2018 Kaiser Permanente Award for Excellence in Pre-Clinical Teaching. Two Kaiser awards are given each year to faculty members nominated by students and other faculty for outstanding teaching. Scott is an associate professor of gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary pathology at the school and is the director of the Division of Quality and Health Improvement.
The Michigan High School Athletic Association has announced that Mark Uyl ’96 will become its next executive director in August. Mark
has been assistant director since 2004, coordinating the MHSAA’s officials, running the statewide baseball program, and leading the organization’s catastrophic and concussion care insurance plans. He’s perhaps best known as one of the top baseball officials in the country, working the College World Series in 2014 and 2017 as well as officiating college football for 12 seasons.
For 11 years, Jonathan DeVries ’97 has taught music at St. Hilda’s & St. Hugh’s School in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of New York City, where he now chairs the department. On November 18, 2017, Jonathan made his Carnegie Hall conducting debut as the artistic director of the Canterbury Choral Society. In a performance of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, he led the combined ensembles, including two adult choirs, full symphonic orchestra, eight soloists, and 350 student singers from nine of New York City’s best schools and churches. Also on the program was a world premiere by Rollo Dilworth, who was commissioned to write a concert-length work for the occasion specifically celebrating youth choirs.
On Valentine’s Day, Callie Lewis Feyen ’98 celebrated the publication of her first book, The Teacher Diaries: Romeo and Juliet. The memoir traces the trials and triumphs of teaching Romeo and Juliet to eighth graders, interlacing that experience with Callie’s memories of her own growing up and how they influenced her teaching. A main theme of the book, Callie writes, is that shared stories “can mend what’s broken and forge new paths—a timely theme for our society in general.” (Available in the Calvin Campus Store.)
Newly released, The Routledge Handbook of Literary Translation was co-edited by Ben VanWyke ’99. Ben, who passed away in September 2017, helped launch the first PhD program in translation studies in the U.S. at Binghamton University. He was a professor in the department of world languages and culture at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis.
Brad Mockabee ’99 was recently named principal of Grand Rapids (Michigan) Christian High School. Since starting at the school following his Calvin graduation, Brad has worked in a variety of roles. He’s served as a Spanish teacher, varsity football coach, Winterim coordinator, and dean of curriculum prior to this appointment.
2000s
In January, Jonna Van Schepen Fey ’00 (third from left), who lives with her husband and children in South Africa, traveled to Kenya to visit 2016 Distinguished Alumni Award honoree Margaret Njuguna ’94 (seated, far right) at En-Gedi Children’s Home. Margaret opened En-Gedi in 2013 as a place of safety for children with severe developmental and physical disabilities. Seeing Margaret’s work confirmed for Jonna the need to bring a similar kind of program to her home, north of Pretoria. To find out more about En-Gedi, visit en-gedichildrenwithhope.org.
In April, Matt Hoekzema ’01 was named vice president of property management for First Companies, a Grand Rapids-based real estate, construction, and property management firm. Matt and his team ensure that all First Companies properties are functional, well-main-tained, and professional looking for building owners and their tenants. Prior to this position, Matt worked for 10 years as the assistant director of Calvin’s physical plant.
Joseph Stubenrauch ’01 has won an American Society of Church History book prize for The Evangelical Age of Ingenuity in Industrial Britain, published by Oxford University Press. He was awarded the 2017 Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize for out- standing scholarship in church history by a first-time author. In the book he maintains that British evangelicals in the late 18th and early 19th centuries created novel approaches to evangelism, even using hot air balloons and the telegraph. Joseph is an associate professor of history at Baylor University.
Nathan T. Zwagerman ’06 has been appointed director of pituitary and skull- base surgery at the Medical College in Wisconsin, the nation’s fourth largest private medical school and Wisconsin’s largest private research institution.
Lakewood Construction in Holland, Michigan, has named Kyle Engbers ’09 its new vice president. He previously served as a project manager and director of safety at the firm, which he joined in 2015.
After finishing his residency in internal medicine and pediatrics at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago in June, Jared Rispens ’09 joined
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) in Atlanta. EIS officers are dispatched to the front lines of disease outbreaks of all kinds, from Ebola in West Africa to bedbugs in Tennessee. As a “disease detective,” Jared will join the vessel sanitation team, which prevents and responds to gastrointestinal outbreaks on cruise ships. He hopes to spend a lot of time at sea!
Despite the civil unrest there, Calvin alums living in Managua, Nicaragua, got together for a potluck reunion in May. Pictured left to right, they are: Kim Karsten Holtrop ’97, Steve Holtrop ’97, Jessica Jonker Starkenburg ’01, Liam Starkenburg, April Hoekstra Homkes ’02, Mark Homkes ’02, Katey Westergren Park ’14, Kyu Park ’13, Ruth Arrowsmith Ippel ’04, Andrew Ippel ’04, Dan Van Zoest ’93, Lisa Riebkes Van Zoest ’91, Jared Benthem ’02, Susan Potter Benthem ’04, and 19 future Knights!
2010s
After she lost her husband, Danny VanderSpek ’10, to cancer in 2014, Corrine Junga VanderSpek ’10 wanted to find a public way to continue his legacy. Because they met and grew in their faith at Calvin, she and Danny’s loved ones decided to endow a scholarship in his name that will be awarded each year to a student who is pursuing electrical engineering, Danny’s vocation, and who prioritizes faith “by living it and sharing it with others.” Besides the money that Danny’s family is raising for the scholarship, Richard Vander Vaart ’85 is donating proceeds from the sale of Still Can’t Help Myself, his second book of short stories and daily devotions. When Danny was in high school, Richard was the pastor for his profession of faith; he also spoke at Danny and Corrine’s wedding and Danny’s funeral. (Available in the Calvin Campus Store.)
Amanda Roels DeLong ’13, realtor and associate broker with Patriot Realty in Grand Rapids, has been named to Realtor Magazine’s 2018 Class of 30 Under 30—young stars rising in the real estate industry. She was chosen from more than 300 applicants for the award. A feature of Amanda’s practice that stood out to judges was her ability to help clients of diverse backgrounds, including those that speak little to no English, purchase their first home in a very competitive market.
Kendra Pennings Kamp ’14 graduated last spring with her PhD in nursing research from Michigan State University. Her dissertation examined social support and self-management behaviors among emerging adults with inflammatory bowel disease. Kendra and husband Scott Kamp ’13 have moved to Seattle, Washington, where she will be a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington School of Nursing.
Among the 17,000 attendees at the American Physical Therapy Association’s Combined Section Meeting in New Orleans in April were these five young Calvin alums. They found each other and held a mini-reunion. All are studying to become physical therapists, and four of the five presented research at the conference. From left, they are: Lexi Scott ’15, studying at the University of Dayton; Amy Sybesma ’15, California State University Sacramento; Autumn Oostindie ’15, Elon University; Cole Evans ’16, University of Illinois; Cassie Van Dyke ’15, University of Michigan.
Allison Bosch Rowe ’16 remembers well the first time she stuck an IV needle into a patient’s arm. Besides her sweaty palms, she remembers how encouraging her clinical instructor, Joel Vedders ’94, was in that nerve-wracking moment. Now both Allison and Joel work on the outpatient surgical services unit at Blodgett Hospital in Grand Rapids, and in April the hospital presented both with the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nursing. The international award recognizes nurses not only for their clinical skill but also for their compassion. Allison calls nursing “a privilege, providing shade in some of the largest deserts people walk through.”
The American Association of Geographers presented Janaya Crevier ’16 and her collaborators the 2018 Alternative Mode of Scholarship Award for their project Ways Home: The Story Map. As a Fulbright Scholar in Vienna, Janaya worked with four teammates to create an interactive map telling the stories of four people with refugee backgrounds who are making new homes in Austria. She now works with MAPSCorps in Chicago, creating maps that connect people with local resources and community assets. Of the award-winning project, she says, “Working on The Story Map was the beginning of what I hope will be a lifetime of learning to listen, to narrate stories with data and maps, and to use my skills to build change with my community from the ground up.” To see The Story Map, visit bit.ly/2GOzofF.
The independent, nonprofit, Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has named Jonathan Manni ’17 a Draper Fellow. The award provides financial, technical, and mentoring support to Jonathan through- out the course of his PhD studies in engineering at the University of Colorado. He received the fellowship for his project to improve the way cameras are used to guide robots through new environments, both in the air and in space.
