Calvin celebrates two legacies
Two legendary Calvin College professors have passed away.
Ervina Boevé and Richard Tiemersma both began at Calvin in the 1950s and both left indelible marks on their alma mater during their tenures in the communication arts and sciences department and English department respectively.
Tiemersma passed away July 4 at the age of 87. Boevé passed away on July 1 at the age of 81 after a short battle with acute erythro-leukemia. Services to honor and celebrate both professors will be held this week at the Calvin Chapel.
During her 37-year tenure at Calvin, Boevé directed more than 100 theater productions, some at a time when theater was still viewed with some suspicion by the Calvin constituency.
Tiemersma was also a longtime professor who served 28 years at the college. Calvin once sent out an alumni survey in the form of a blue book with Tiemersma's name on the front and received an unprecedented response. One former student said simply: "I didn't dare not return it."
After retirement both Tiemersma and Boevé were honored by the Calvin Alumni Association with its Faith & Learning Award, an annual honor that is given to a former faculty member who has successfully and consistently integrated faith and learning in the classroom.
"The recipient is a master teacher, making a significant impact on Calvin students in training for a life of service in God's Kingdom," the award criteria states. Those who knew both Boevé and Tiemersma say there is no doubt they both fit the bill.
Retired Calvin English professor George Harper was Tiemersma's friend and colleague and remembers Tiemersma as a superb teacher, especially of rhetoric, and someone who knew English grammar extremely well.
"He used to brag a bit about being the only person in the department who could identify and illustrate a very rare grammatical phenomenon called the Retained Object," Harper says with a smile, adding that "Dick taught several generations of students, most of whom are skilled writers to this day, and they have often sought him out when visiting the college or the town to tell him how he had helped them."
