Five members of the Hope College faculty with service totaling 158 years are retiring at the end of the school year.

Retiring are:  Dr. C. Baars Bultman, professor of education; Jon Huisken, who is dean for academic services and registrar and an adjunct associate professor of English; Barbara Mezeske, associate professor of English; Dr. Richard Mezeske, professor of education and chairperson of the department; and Dr. William Mungall, who is the Elmer E. Hartgerink Professor of Chemistry and health professions advisor.

° Dr. C. Baars Bultman, professor of education, taught his first course at Hope, a night class in social studies methods, in 1985, while also on the faculty at Fremont High School.  He joined the Hope faculty in 1987 as one of three area teachers chosen to share their in-service expertise through the department of education's Half-Time Professor program, splitting his time between Fremont and Hope, and became a full-time member of the faculty in 2002.

In addition to his service to the college's department of education, he has also been teaching in the Senior Seminar program as well as courses in history and political science.  His scholarship has included a variety of articles, reviews and poems, and a chapter in the departmental book "Finding Our Way: Reforming Teacher Education in the Liberal Arts Setting."

The graduating senior class selected him to deliver the Commencement address in 2000, and the students of the college's chapter of the Mortar Board honor society invited him to deliver the "Wearing of the Blue" address in 2006.

Bultman is a 1971 graduate of Hope, where he majored in political science and also played varsity basketball.  He completed a master's degree, in United States history, at Western Michigan University, in 1976, and a doctorate, in English with a focus in American studies, at Michigan State University in 1995.

After graduating from Hope he taught at Newaygo High School for a year before moving to the Fremont school system, where he taught social studies and English at the junior high school, social studies at the high school and served as a guidance counselor.  Among other honors during his tenure in secondary education, he was an 11-year recipient of Newaygo County's "Excellence in Education Award" and received the 1995 "Fremont School Board Achievement Award."

His wife, Margo, is a 1973 Hope graduate.  They have two grown children:  Marta, who graduated from Hope in 2002, as did her husband, Raj Malviya; and Peter, a 2006 Denison University graduate; and one granddaughter.

° When Jon Huisken, dean for academic services and registrar and adjunct associate professor of English, joined the Hope staff in 1969, the newly computerizing records office was managed by the director of the computer center.

Huisken, who had graduated from Calvin College in 1965, had been teaching middle school and junior high school, but was interested in working in higher education when the opportunity arose to come to Hope as assistant registrar.  He became registrar a year later, and in 1989, to reflect the way that his responsibilities had grown, he was promoted to dean for academic services and registrar.

Among other duties, in addition to handling student records, his office runs course registration (now conducted online), coordinates academic advising, and oversees the Academic Support Center, FOCUS and SOAR programs, and Great Lakes Colleges Association Philadelphia Center, with Huisken additionally serving as the college's official contact with the Immigration Service.  To stay in touch with what faculty experience, he's also been teaching the college's business writing course, and for several years had taught at Davenport College as well.

Hope students expressed their appreciation for him in 1987, when the graduating class presented him with a special award for service during that year's Commencement ceremony.  In addition, he received the "Provost's Award for Service to the Academic Program" in 2004.

Huisken's work has had an effect on not only thousands of Hope alumni, but on his immediate family as well.  Wife Joanne, who retired from a career in elementary education this past spring, completed an additional degree at Hope in 2004.  All four of their daughters are also alumnae:  Amy Praestgaard, Class of 1986; Shelley Spencer, Class of 1988; Jana Huisken, Class of 1994; and Jennifer LaPointe, Class of 1996.  In retirement, he and Joanne plan to spend more time with their children and five grandchildren, as well as at the family cottage near Ludington and catching the Cubs during spring training.

° Barbara Mezeske, associate professor of English, joined the Hope faculty in 1978 as an instructor focused on freshman composition, a program she began coordinating in 1994.  In addition to expository writing, her teaching interests include Western world literature, 20th-Century African literature, teaching pedagogy and information literacy.  She has taught more than 3,500 students during her time at the college.

She has also played a leadership role in Hope's ongoing efforts to enhance instruction college-wide.  She is director of the college's Faculty Mentoring Program and has been actively involved in the Teaching Enhancement Workshop for new faculty since 1996.  She has also led a summer writing workshop for faculty engaged in scholarly projects.

The college presented her with the "Provost's Award for Excellence in Teaching," today called the "Janet L. Andersen Excellence in Teaching Award," in 1998.

Mezeske is the author of numerous articles published in scholarly journals, including a two-part essay in "The Teaching Professor" exploring how faculty in midcareer and approaching retirement can stay fresh in their approach to teaching.  In her own final year at Hope, she both developed a course focused on writing about science and initiated a project through which her expository-writing students interviewed the young students in the Children's After School Achievement (CASA) program and wrote biographical sketches about them.  Her publications also include two books co-edited with her husband, Dr. Richard Mezeske of the education faculty:  "Finding Our Way: Reforming Teacher Education in the Liberal Arts Setting" (2004) and "Beyond Tests and Quizzes: Creative Assessments in the College Classroom" (2007).  In 2002, she and Kelly Jacobsma of the Hope library faculty were the primary authors of a successful proposal for one of only five $10,000 awards to Michigan colleges or universities from the SBC Ameritech Partnership Awards for Independent Colleges program in support of the use of information technology.

She graduated from Hope in 1970 with an English major, and completed a master's degree in English at Michigan State University in 1978.  Prior to joining the Hope faculty, she taught at Jenison Public High School for seven years.

She and Richard have two grown children: Emily, who graduated from the college in 1999; and Andrew, who graduated from Hope in 2002 and whose wife Lindsay is a 2004 graduate; and one grandson.

° Dr. Richard Mezeske, professor of education and chairperson of the department, has been a member of the full-time faculty since 1992, and had taught part-time at Hope beginning in 1986.  He is a specialist in literacy education and literature for children and adolescents.

He developed the college's initial May Term program with Liverpool Hope University in education, beginning an international institutional relationship that now includes full-semester student-teaching experiences in Liverpool for Hope students and has also grown to involve multiple departments at the college.  He has also developed and team-teaches, with Dr. Jesse Montaño of the English faculty, Hope's course on ethnic American literature for children and young adults.  For several years, he also directed the college's Young Authors' Conference for area children.

The college presented him with the "Provost's Award for Excellence in Teaching," today called the "Janet L. Andersen Excellence in Teaching Award," in 2004.

Mezeske has made presentations at national and international conferences focused on literacy and reading.  His publications include two books, which he co-edited with his wife, Barbara Mezeske of the English faculty:  "Finding Our Way: Reforming Teacher Education in the Liberal Arts Setting" (2004) and "Beyond Tests and Quizzes: Creative Assessments in the College Classroom" (2007).

He joined the Hope faculty having had a variety of teaching experiences at multiple levels.  He was a middle school English teacher from 1969 to 1977, a reading consultant serving five K-5 schools with the Allegan Public Schools from 1977 to 1979, and a reading and English teacher at the former Saugatuck Dunes Correctional Facility south of Holland from 1979 to 1991.

He graduated from Hope in 1969 with a major in political science.  He completed a master's degree in reading instruction at Michigan State University in 1978, and a doctorate in literacy and children's literature at Michigan State University in 2000.

He and Barbara have two grown children: Emily, who graduated from the college in 1999; and Andrew, who graduated from Hope in 2002 and whose wife Lindsay is a 2004 graduate; and one grandson.

° Dr. William Mungall, who is the Elmer E. Hartgerink Professor of Chemistry, has been a member of the Hope faculty since 1971.

His teaching has ranged from the First-Year Seminar program for new students to his department's course in organic chemistry for students majoring in the discipline.  He has involved 102 students in research in synthetic organic chemistry for more than a semester each, including part-time during the school year and full-time in the summer, many of whom have co-authored journal articles with him.  As the college's health professions advisor, he guides students who are interested in careers in medicine, dentistry, optometry, serving as physician assistants, veterinary medicine, physical therapy, pharmacy and occupational therapy.

He twice chaired the department of chemistry, from 1982 to 1986 and during 1989-90, and was appointed to his endowed professorship in 1995.   The college presented him with the "Provost's Award for Service to the Academic Program" in 2008.

Mungall is the co-author of "Experimental Organic Chemistry," a one-year introductory textbook published in 1980, and has had several articles published through the years, in publications including the "Journal of the American Chemical Society," the "Journal of Medicinal Chemistry" and the "Journal of Organic Chemistry."  He has also presented several papers at professional conferences concerning his research.

Through the years he has received multiple grants in support of both his research and the college's science programs, from agencies and organizations including the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, the Hewlett-Packard U.S. University Equipment Grants program, and the Pew Midstates Science and Mathematics Consortium.  He has been a visiting professor or scientist at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University, and has also served as a consultant for several chemical and pharmaceutical companies.

He graduated from SUNY-Buffalo with a major in chemistry in 1967, and completed his doctorate in organic chemistry at Northwestern University in 1970.  While doing his graduate work, he received both an NSF Graduate Traineeship and an NSF Graduate Fellowship.

He and his wife, Carol, have a grown daughter, Christine, and son, William, and five grandchildren.