The college's 134th Commencement ceremony will be held on Sunday, May 9, and approximately 590 graduating seniors will be participating.

The college's 134th Commencement ceremony will be held on Sunday, May 9, and approximately 590 graduating seniors will be participating.

          This year's ceremony will feature two speakers:
  Professors John and Julie Fiedler, husband-and-wife members
  of the college's English faculty, who will present the
  address "Anchors Aweigh!"  The Baccalaureate sermon, "A
  Living Dog is Better Than a Dead Lion," will be delivered by
  the Rev. Frederick Kruithof, who is the 1998-99 president of
  the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America and
  minister of preaching and congregational care at Second
  Reformed Church in Kalamazoo.
          Commencement will be held on Sunday, May 9, at 3
  p.m. in Holland Municipal Stadium.  Baccalaureate will be
  held on Sunday, May 9, at 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. in
  Dimnent Memorial Chapel.
          John Fiedler joined the Hope faculty in 1986 on a
  part-time basis, and was appointed to his current rank of
  adjunct assistant professor in 1992.
          In 1995, the college's graduating class presented
  him with the 31st annual "Hope Outstanding Professor
  Educator" (H.O.P.E.) award.
          He graduated from Whitman College in Walla Walla,
  Wash., with a major in English in 1980.  He earned his
  master of arts degree, also in English, from the University
  of Washington, Seattle, in 1983.
          He has done additional graduate work at the
  University of Chicago, from which he received a University
  Scholarship.  He is currently completing student teaching in
  anticipation of beginning a career in elementary education
  in the fall.
          Julie Fiedler joined the Hope faculty in 1986 on a
  part-time basis, and was appointed to her current rank of
  adjunct assistant professor in 1992.  She also serves the
  college as divisional recruitment coordinator in the
  humanities.
          She is also active as an artist, working in
  ceramic sculpture, decorative and china painting, and oil
  painting.  Her work has been featured in several galleries
  locally, as well as in exhibitions in Boulder, Colo.,
  Northampton, Mass., and Miami, Fla.  Her work is also
  included in several private collections.
          She graduated from the University of Puget Sound
  in Tacoma, Wash., with majors in English and art history in
  1984.  She earned her master of arts degree, also in
  English, from the University of Washington, Seattle, in
  1985.
          Kruithof, who is a 1961 Hope graduate, was elected
  president of the General Synod of the Reformed Church in
  America in June of 1998, and previously served as vice
  president for a year.  He is also a past vice president of
  the Synod of Michigan, and past president of the classes of
  Philadelphia, Lake Erie and Southwest Michigan.
          He is in his ninth year at Second Reformed Church
  in Kalamazoo.  He previously served with Hope Reformed in
  South Haven; Remembrance Reformed in Grand Rapids; Church of
  the Master in Warren; and Talmage Memorial Reformed in
  Philadelphia, Pa.
          He has been a member of the board of the
  Roxborough, Pa., YMCA, and the Reformed Church Home in
  Irvington, N.J.; president of ministerial fellowships in
  Philadelphia, Warren, Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo; chair of
  Church Planning and Development for the Synod of Michigan;
  pastoral advisor of South Haven Hospice; a board member of
  Kalamazoo Hospice; a member of both the General Program
  Council and the General Synod Council of the RCA; a member
  of the RCA's Evangelism and Development Team; and chair of
  the Kalamazoo CROP Walk.
          Kruithof has been a member of the college's Board
  of Trustees since 1991, and is currently vice chair.  His
  father, Bastian, was a member of Hope's religion faculty
  from 1957 to 1972.  He completed his M.Div. at Western
  Theological Seminary in 1964.
          Kruithof and his wife, Sharon, have three
  children:  Kirk, Brad, who is a 1992 Hope graduate, and
  Ryan.
          In the event of rain, Commencement will be held at
  the Holland Civic Center.  Admission to Baccalaureate, and
  to Commencement if indoors, is by ticket only.