The college's 134th Commencement ceremony will be held on Sunday, May 9, and approximately 590 graduating seniors will be participating.
The college's 134th Commencement ceremony will be held on Sunday, May 9, and approximately 590 graduating seniors will be participating.
This year's ceremony will feature two speakers:
Professors John and Julie Fiedler, husband-and-wife members
of the college's English faculty, who will present the
address "Anchors Aweigh!" The Baccalaureate sermon, "A
Living Dog is Better Than a Dead Lion," will be delivered by
the Rev. Frederick Kruithof, who is the 1998-99 president of
the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America and
minister of preaching and congregational care at Second
Reformed Church in Kalamazoo.
Commencement will be held on Sunday, May 9, at 3
p.m. in Holland Municipal Stadium. Baccalaureate will be
held on Sunday, May 9, at 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. in
Dimnent Memorial Chapel.
John Fiedler joined the Hope faculty in 1986 on a
part-time basis, and was appointed to his current rank of
adjunct assistant professor in 1992.
In 1995, the college's graduating class presented
him with the 31st annual "Hope Outstanding Professor
Educator" (H.O.P.E.) award.
He graduated from Whitman College in Walla Walla,
Wash., with a major in English in 1980. He earned his
master of arts degree, also in English, from the University
of Washington, Seattle, in 1983.
He has done additional graduate work at the
University of Chicago, from which he received a University
Scholarship. He is currently completing student teaching in
anticipation of beginning a career in elementary education
in the fall.
Julie Fiedler joined the Hope faculty in 1986 on a
part-time basis, and was appointed to her current rank of
adjunct assistant professor in 1992. She also serves the
college as divisional recruitment coordinator in the
humanities.
She is also active as an artist, working in
ceramic sculpture, decorative and china painting, and oil
painting. Her work has been featured in several galleries
locally, as well as in exhibitions in Boulder, Colo.,
Northampton, Mass., and Miami, Fla. Her work is also
included in several private collections.
She graduated from the University of Puget Sound
in Tacoma, Wash., with majors in English and art history in
1984. She earned her master of arts degree, also in
English, from the University of Washington, Seattle, in
1985.
Kruithof, who is a 1961 Hope graduate, was elected
president of the General Synod of the Reformed Church in
America in June of 1998, and previously served as vice
president for a year. He is also a past vice president of
the Synod of Michigan, and past president of the classes of
Philadelphia, Lake Erie and Southwest Michigan.
He is in his ninth year at Second Reformed Church
in Kalamazoo. He previously served with Hope Reformed in
South Haven; Remembrance Reformed in Grand Rapids; Church of
the Master in Warren; and Talmage Memorial Reformed in
Philadelphia, Pa.
He has been a member of the board of the
Roxborough, Pa., YMCA, and the Reformed Church Home in
Irvington, N.J.; president of ministerial fellowships in
Philadelphia, Warren, Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo; chair of
Church Planning and Development for the Synod of Michigan;
pastoral advisor of South Haven Hospice; a board member of
Kalamazoo Hospice; a member of both the General Program
Council and the General Synod Council of the RCA; a member
of the RCA's Evangelism and Development Team; and chair of
the Kalamazoo CROP Walk.
Kruithof has been a member of the college's Board
of Trustees since 1991, and is currently vice chair. His
father, Bastian, was a member of Hope's religion faculty
from 1957 to 1972. He completed his M.Div. at Western
Theological Seminary in 1964.
Kruithof and his wife, Sharon, have three
children: Kirk, Brad, who is a 1992 Hope graduate, and
Ryan.
In the event of rain, Commencement will be held at
the Holland Civic Center. Admission to Baccalaureate, and
to Commencement if indoors, is by ticket only.