Calvin Oldest Professor Emeritus Passes Away

October 12, 2005 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Calvin's oldest professor emeritus has passed away.

Bernard J. Fridsma Sr. celebrated his 100th birthday on January 15, 2005 at
Fuller Avenue Christian Reformed Church, where he was a member for over 70
years.

He passed away this morning while in hospice care just a week after moving
from his house on Sylvan Street in Grand Rapids, a place he had called home for
almost 60 years!

Longtime friend and Calvin professor of English emeritus Henry Baron says that
Fridsma was sharp until the end.

"We celebrated communion together this past weekend," says Baron. "We prayed
and we sang Jesus Loves Me. He sang that song with all he had left."

Fridsma joined the faculty of Calvin College, his alma mater, in 1946 as a
professor of Germanic Languages and taught at Calvin for 24 years, retiring in
May 1970.

Prior to Calvin, Fridsma, who earned both his master's and Ph.D. degrees at
the University of Michigan, had a 17-year career as a teacher of German, Latin,
French and Spanish at Grand Rapids Christian High School.

All together he spent over four decades as a local educator.

Ironically Fridsma had decided to become a teacher after a short stint in
clerical work after high school because his goal was to find a profession that
might lead him back to Friesland, where he had been born and had lived until
the age of six when his family immigrated to the U.S. And while that return to
his native land never happened, Fridsma instead spent much of his life bringing
Friesland to the U.S.

Indeed friends of Fridsma say he leaves behind two great legacies: the first
his career at Calvin; the second his longtime love for the language and culture
of the country of Friesland, and his desire to share that love with others.

Fridsma's many efforts to promote Friesland were recognized there in the late
1960s when the town of his birth, Scharnegoutum, named a street in his honor.
And on the occasion of his 100th birthday, Fridsma's hometown created a variety
of tributes to their native son, including a booklet filled with stories and
essays and a special church service in his honor.

Note: funeral arrangements were incomplete at press time. For the complete
story on Bernard Fridsma see:
http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2005_06/fridsma.htm

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Received on Wed Oct 12 15:04:44 2005