I married Jean Brondyke (Mr. Mark Brondyke’s sister) in July of 1981.

We met at Calvin College.

I was a Senior and she was a Freshman.

The rest, as they say, is history.

We have four sons and two daughters-in-law:
Tad works at B&B Design and is married to Karena. Karena teaches 3rd Grade at GHCS. They live in Grand Haven.

Casey attends Cornerstone University while working on a Business degree and is married to Ashley who attends Central Michigan University . They live in Edmore.

Will graduated from Western Michigan Chr. High and is attending Calvin College.

Tully is a 7th Grader at Grand Haven Christian (he has his dad for a teacher!)

We are members of Spring Lake Christian Reformed Church.

I attended Kellogsville Christian School K-4.

My father was a minister in the Christian Reformed Church and my mother was a kindergarten teacher at Jenison Christian School.

I attended West Side Christian School from 5th grade through 9th grade.

I attended Grand Rapids Christian High School and graduated in 1975.

I earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education with a History major and a teaching certificate from Calvin College in 1979.

I taught ABE (Adult Basic Education) for an experimental program called PDS (Personal Development Services) that took  male adults in the welfare system, bused them to our building on Division Street and gave them counseling and instruction during the day.  Most of my students were alcoholic males in their late 50s.  I also taught ESL (English as a SECOND LANGUAGE) for Grandville Public Schools.   At that time most of my students were Vietnam Refugees.

In 1980 I applied for a 5th grade teaching position at GHCS.  I did not get the job however in August of that year,   I received a call from Mr. Zoet to come in for another interview since the school needed a 5/6 grade teacher.  I signed a contract on August 29, 1980 and began teaching the following week!   And now it’s 30 years later!!

I earned a Masters Degree (MA) in Educational Administration from Michigan State University (MSU) in 1988.

For the past fourteen summers I have taught “summer school” at Bethany Christian Services in Grand Rapids (employed by Grand Rapids Public Schools).  My students at Bethany are all boys from the ages of 12-18.  It is an interesting job!

I wrote part of the 6th Grade Bible Text Book (House of Israel) published by CSI several years ago.  Last year I wrote three New Testament units for the new 8th Grade Bible curriculum being published by CSI in the next year or so.

Oh, one more thing, I AM GOING TO BE A GRANDPA!!!!!