LETTER FROM ANDERSON:
Punches has encouraged us to write about what we have been doing for the last 37 years so that we won't have to spend as much time getting up to speed at the reunion. I really enjoyed reading Fred Alley's so here's mine. I hope others are to follow. For the past 33 years I have worked for Hope College - the last 29 as VP for Administration and Finance. Hope is an independent private liberal arts college with an enrollment of just under 3,000 and an endowment of about $120 million. Hope is ranked as one of the top 250 private undergraduate institutions in the US and one of the few that have retained close identification with the Christian faith via the Reformed Church in America. Our strongest programs are in the sciences where we are one of the leading undergraduate colleges in terms of research grants received from the National Science Foundation and prepare many students for careers in medicine, physics and related research. My wonderful wife Suzie and I have been married for 24 years and have four boys ages 27, 26, 21 & 20. One each from our previous marriages and two between us. Will graduated from Hope and is an insurance adjuster, Mike is attending Wright State majoring in biology and computer science, Tim is a biology major at Hope and Matt is attending the culinary arts program at GR Community College. Suzie is a recovery room RN at Holland Hospital half-time and her passions are gardening and keeping me out of trouble. I have done a fair amount of business consulting - mostly involved with start up business opportunities. The most fun was launching an international magazine "Birders' World" with one of our former faculty members which we developed into a US circulation of 120,000 before selling it 3 years ago to Kalmbalch Publishing - publishers of Model Railroading etc. Also founded and serve as board chairman of Creative Dining Service which provides management services to food operations at colleges, conference centers, retirement communities and corporations. Last year our sales exceeded $20 million over a six-state area. CDS is a joint venture between Hope College, Calvin College and our management team. Suzie and I are active in our church where I serve as an elder and treasurer and Suzie as a Sunday school teacher. Golf remains my passion and number one non-work activity - I just completed a stint as President of the Holland Country Club where I manage to maintain a handicap between 8 and 9. I have been very active in our local Hospice movement, the big brother program and other community activities but I hope to be able to wind some of this down during the next few years as we prepare for retirement. We have a summer cottage on Platte Lake about 25 miles south of Traverse City and plan to move there permanently upon our retirement. We have decided that we are going to truly retire and kick back which would be difficult for us to do if we remained in Holland.