Calvin News

There’s an asteroid named after him. But the legacy Roger Griffioen built at Calvin isn’t best discovered through a telescope, but rather under a microscope, where you'll find his fingerprints to be on so much.

For nearly 40 years, Griffioen served as a faculty member, department chair, and academic dean at Calvin. On January 3, 2026, he died at the age of 91.

Roger Griffioen graduated from Calvin in 1956, obtained his PhD in nuclear chemistry in 1960 from Purdue University, and then did a yearlong post-doc at UC-Berkeley.

Building a program

While Griffioen returned to his alma mater in 1961 as a teacher, he would soon find himself in the middle of building projects. He served on the Science Building Planning Committee, which was responsible for thinking well about the construction of Calvin’s original Science Building. But he was also intricately involved in building up programming.

“One of Roger’s legacies for Calvin will be building a strong physics and astronomy department, with a full range of upper-level theory and laboratory courses that fully prepare students for graduate school or physics careers—and opportunities for students to do research work with professors,” said Loren Haarsma, associate professor of physics.

Haarsma points out that at the heart of Griffioen’s desire to build a department and the spaces to do the work was to serve students well.

Taking a student-centered approach

“Roger was a skilled and kind teacher,” said Haarsma. “He gave excellent lectures, but his sills were even more evident in office hours. When students came to him for help with difficult material, he asked them insightful questions that guided them to deeper understanding."

One of those students was Stan Haan, who not only benefitted from Griffioen’s “well thought through” lectures, but also him being “available and caring.”

“When I was a Calvin student in the early 1970s, Roger was my professor for introductory physics,”
 said Haan. “My enjoyment of those courses was important in my choosing to major in physics.”

Haan would not only enjoy Griffioen as a professor, but he’d also serve alongside him for 15 years as a colleague.

“Roger was an important factor in my deciding to come to Calvin as a faculty member. I was just finishing a postdoc then, and I thought Calvin offered the most opportunity for professional growth and development,” said Haan. “He was my informal mentor.”

Building and supporting a team

Just like Griffioen was building up his students in the classroom, he was also investing in building up a talented team around him on the faculty.

“In his time in the physics department, Roger made it a place where physics was done well and staffed the department so that the generation of faculty that followed him would continue that record,” said Larry Molnar, professor of astronomy. “This is a legacy that should be remembered.”

“Rog was my Physics 225 teacher back in 1985, and he was a supportive department chair and dean throughout my time as a Calvin student. A few years later he hired me and welcomed me to the Calvin faculty,” said Matt Walhout, a former colleague of Griffioen’s. “I’ll remember him as a wise and attentive colleague who invested in the success of his students and colleagues, while also finding enjoyment in shared activities outside of Calvin.”

Creating a community

Those activities were opportunities for Griffioen to build relationships with his colleagues, model a healthy work-life balance, and to provide them with opportunities to provide input in a less formal setting.

“He’d regularly stop by my office at 11:30 and ask if I wanted to join him in a two-mile run on campus. We did a lot of those,” said Haan. “Some of the discussions we had when we went running have stuck with me.”

“He encouraged me to balance teaching and research responsibilities and also invited me to join his weekly tennis group,” said Walhout. “When my family joined his church, he and I occasionally sang in choirs or small groups together, and we got to hear him play the trumpet during worship services on a regular basis.”

“One thing is clear,” said Haan. “Roger had a huge impact on my life and career.”

Leaving a legacy

Griffioen’s legacy lives on at Calvin and beyond in the lives of the many former, current, and future students and faculty who have and will benefit from the foundations he built in the physics and astronomy department. It also lives on in a scholarship the physics and astronomy department established in his name and in the first asteroid ever discovered by a Calvin student, “Asteroid 1218177 Griffioen.”

Griffioen was preceded in death by his first wife, Kay. He is survived by his wife of 37 years, Sue; children Keith (Ruth), Pam (Steve) Wiley, Kevin (Ximena), and Denise (Scott) Tamminga; nine grandchildren and their spouses, and five great grandchildren.

Memorial contributions can be made to the Roger D. Griffioen Scholarship Fund at Calvin University.