Bruce Dice Mineralogical Museum

Visit

The Museum has open hours on Tuesday–Friday during most of the academic year (see details below).  Informal tours are offered by student docents during all open hours or you can explore the collection on your own. Formal tours and educational lectures by faculty and/or staff are available by request. For a formal tour or if you are a group wanting to visit, please call the museum at 616-526-8100 or email Deanna van Dijk (dvandijk@calvin.edu) to make arrangements.

Open Hours (fall semester): 12pm-5pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.

• Fall semester hours begin the week before Labor Day (on Tuesday, 30 August 2022)
• The Museum will be closed for the week of Thanksgiving (22-25 November 2022).
• The Museum will close for final exams and the holiday break starting the week of 12 December 2022.
• The Museum will open again for the spring semester in the second week of January 2023.

Special Events:

• The Dice Museum extends deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Mr. Bruce Dice who passed away on November 5, 2022 at the age of 95. The Calvin University community and Museum visitors are invited to share messages of sympathy or favorite memories from the Museum in a memory book that will be given to the Dice family. The book is available for contributions and signing through Friday, November 18, 2022. 
• To read more about the life of Mr. Bruce Dice, as well as local (Grand Rapids) arrangements, view the obituary.
• To mark 10 years of operation (from the dedication on November 9, 2012), the Dice Mineralogical Museum is planning a 10-year celebration open house on Saturday, March 18, 2023. Please plan to join us.
• On Thursday, 7 April 2022, we celebrated the accomplishments of Dr. C. Renee Sparks during her six years as Director of the Dice Mineralogical Museum. See the event poster. 
• If you would like to be added to an email list for occasional updates (2-3 times a year) or for announcements of new displays and special events, please complete this short form.

Getting to the Dice Museum: We are located on the Calvin University campus at 3201 Burton St. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 (see driving map to campus). On campus, you will find us on the first floor of North Hall (see map with parking and building entrances). Admission is free.

History

Bruce Dice, a 1948 Calvin alumnus and geologist from Houston, Texas, has been an avid rock and mineral collector for as long as he can remember. From childhood digging in his backyard, to spelunking in mines in New Zealand and Mexico, Dice has practiced the art of mineral collecting.

During the last 30 years, Dice has invested considerable time and effort into improving his exquisite collection. World-wide travels provided him opportunities to acquire rare and valuable samples. One of his favorite minerals on display is a sample of Crocoite, an unusual and rare lead chromate (PbCrO4) which forms into red, tabular crystals. The museum’s specimen was obtained from a small, family owned mine in Australia.

Through the years Dice has worked to improve the variety and quality of minerals in the collection. Recent purchases included a suite of stunning fluorescent specimens from Franklin, New Jersey.

Nevertheless, he felt something was missing: “I decided it was time to share … so [the collection] went to the love of my life — Calvin College.” A short time later, his mineral collection was delivered to professional museum staff for mounting, photographing, appraisal and documentation. Back at Calvin, faculty, staff, and students were enthusiastic when construction broke ground in March of 2012. A new addition to North Hall was erected, and over 300 mineral, meteorite, and fossil specimens were relocated to their new home on Calvin’s campus.

Both Dice and those at Calvin University agree that the collection is a magnificent way to marvel at God’s creation. With time, the museum will continue to change as new specimens are displayed from acquisitions and storage, thereby offering fresh displays of God’s handiwork to be enjoyed time and again.