Calvin Announces Meijer Chair

May 8, 2006 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Calvin College has a new chair in Dutch language and culture thanks to a
generous donation from a legendary Grand Rapids businessman and community
benefactor.

The Frederik Meijer Endowed Chair in Dutch Language and Culture at Calvin is
being funded by a gift from Meijer grocery store founder Frederik Meijer, whose
many other contributions to the West Michigan community include Meijer Gardens
(a botanic garden and world-class sculpture park) and the Fred and Lena Meijer
Heart Center (established in November 2004 as West Michigan's first and only
heart center), to name just two very different, but essential local
facilities.

The first holder of the new Meijer Chair will be Dr. Henk Aay, a professor in
the geology, geography & environment studies department at Calvin. An
inaugural event to celebrate Meijer's gift and Aay's selection (and to chart a
course for the chair) will take place at Calvin in September 2006.

Aay, a native Dutch speaker, who began at Calvin in 1983, will serve an
initial three-year term. He says he is delighted to be afforded the honor of
becoming the first Meijer Chair occupant at Calvin.

"In some ways," he says, "it feels a little like the culmination of my career,
the icing on the cake. I have had a passion for the Netherlands all my life.
It will be a privilege to make that passion part of the work of the new
chair."

Calvin president Dr. Gaylen Byker says: "Dr. Aay is a scholar and a native of
the Netherlands who has broad experiences with the country including co-leading
regular off-campus interims there, facilitating visits of Dutch scholars to
Calvin, sabbatical work at two Dutch Universities, a variety of essays and
books and much more. I am very pleased that he will be the first holder of
this chair."

The donation from Meijer will go toward two tracks at Calvin. Part of the
funds will support and ensure the continuation of Dutch language instruction at
Calvin. The other track will underwrite efforts to promote understanding of
past and present-day Netherlands.

Aay says those efforts will include speakers, workshops, seminars and other
efforts to help the Calvin campus, West Michigan and Calvin's broader
constituency understand where the Netherlands has been and where it is today.

"The Netherlands is an important part of Calvin's heritage," says Aay, "but we
have changed in many ways in recent years with students and professors with a
much greater diversity of backgrounds. And that's great. In addition, through
off-campus interims and semesters abroad our students have the ability to study
in numerous countries. Their international understanding and experience has
expanded, which is also great. Yet I believe that better understanding where
the college came from will help us stick to and further articulate our
educational and scholarly mission."

Born in the Netherlands, Aay journeyed to Canada with his family at the age of
13. That country remained his home for 25 years and he says its strong
British-inherited tradition in geography captured his interest and enthusiasm
already in high school.

Contact Aay at 616-526-7033 or aay@calvin.edu
For the full story, including a high-res color pic of Aay, see
http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2005_06/meijer_chair.htm

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Received on Mon May 8 06:00:12 2006