The Hope College Alumni Association will present five graduates with Distinguished Alumni Awards during the college's Alumni Day on Saturday, May 6.
The Hope College Alumni Association will present five graduates with Distinguished Alumni Awards during the college's Alumni Day on Saturday, May 6.
Being honored this year are Kathy Beauregard of
Portage; the Rev. Glenn and Phyllis Bruggers of Holland,
Mich.; the Rev. Dr. Gregg Mast of East Nassau, N.Y.; and Dr.
James M. Riekse of Grand Rapids.
The annual Distinguished Alumni Awards are
presented by the Alumni Association Board of Directors in
recognition of the awardees' contributions to society and
service to Hope. The award, presented during the college's
Alumni Banquet, is the highest honor that alumni can receive
from the college's Alumni Association.
Beauregard, a 1979 graduate from Portage, has been
director of athletics at Western Michigan University in
Kalamazoo since 1997. She is one of only seven women
nationwide to serve as director of athletics at National
Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) I-A Institution.
She has been with Western Michigan University for
more than 20 years. She was previously senior associate
director of athletics at the university for nine years, and
was also head women's gymnastics coach for nine years.
Beauregard has chaired many NCAA and Mid American
Conference (MAC) committees. She has been an NCAA National
Peer Review team member for three years, and serves on the
NCAA Olympic Sports Liaison Committee.
She was named one of the 26 most influential women
in West Michigan in 1999 by "Business Direct Weekly," and
also received the "Glass Ceiling Award" from the Kalamazoo
Network in 1999. She is a two-time MAC coach of the year,
and has also been named to the Kalamazoo Loy Norrix High
School Athletic Hall of Fame.
Beauregard is a past member of the board of the
college's Alumni H-Club. Her community activities include
volunteering with the American Cancer Society, the American
Heart Association, the Western Michigan University Care
About Kids Program and Hospice. She is a member of the
Kalamazoo Rotary.
She holds a master's in athletic administration
from Western Michigan University.
Beauregard and her husband, Rick, have a son,
Brad.
Glenn and Phyllis Bruggers graduated from Hope in
1948 and 1947 respectively. They are retired after careers
in mission service with the Reformed Church in America and
education, including more than 20 years in Japan.
Glenn Bruggers enrolled at Hope in 1941 and
graduated in 1948, his time at the college interrupted by
service with the U.S. Army Air Corps in the China-Burma-
India theatre during World War II. He subsequently enrolled
in Western Theological Seminary, originally intending to
become a missionary to China.
After graduating from Hope in 1947, Phyllis
Bruggers taught in elementary schools in Dolton, Ill., and
Holland. After Glenn graduated from the seminary, they both
studied Japanese at Yale University in preparation for
service in Japan, since the political situation in China had
made service there impossible.
The couple moved to Japan in 1952. Glenn worked
as an evangelist with churches and students in Kagoshima
Prefecture, and with inmates on "Death Row" in Fukuoka
Prefecture. He also managed the "New Life" Evangelistic
Center in Fukuoka and managed the Japanese language radio
broadcast of "Words of Hope." Phyllis taught at Fukuoka
Women's University and Baiko Girls School, and was principal
and a teacher at Fukuoka International School.
In 1974, the couple returned to the United States
when Glenn was appointed secretary for Asian and African
ministries in the Division of World Mission of the RCA,
responsible for mission programs, outreach and relationships
with national churches. Phyllis
served as a substitute teacher in the Jenison, Mich., Public
Schools, and as secretary at Hope
Reformed Church in Grand Rapids.
They traveled extensively as a result of Glenn's
denominational appointment. They were also active at Fair
Haven Reformed Church in Jenison, with Phyllis additionally
working with Reformed Church Women and as a volunteer child
advocate for the Grand Rapids YWCA shelter for abused women.
After Glenn retired in 1989, he and Phyllis served
as interim administrators of the RCA's Speakers Bureau for
six months. Also since retirement, they have been active at
Third Reformed Church in Holland. Glenn served as calling
pastor from 1990 to 1993, and Phyllis has been a Sunday
school teacher, spiritual life secretary for Reformed Church
Women and an elder. She has also worked with families
through the church's "Project Zero Committee."
In addition, Glenn served as minister to seniors
at Central Reformed Church in Grand Rapids from 1990 to
1998. Phyllis was active in Good Samaritan Ministries from
1991 to 1999.
They have four children: David Bruggers, a 1973
Hope graduate; Stephen Bruggers, a 1976 graduate; Joan
Bruggers; and Carolyn Bruggers, a 1981 graduate.
Mast, a 1974 Hope graduate, is serving a one-year
term as president of the RCA's General Synod, elected in
June of 1999. He is senior pastor of First Church in
Albany, N.Y.
He is also a member of the college's Board of
Trustees, serving on the board since 1994.
Mast has been a member of a variety of
denominational boards and committees. He has been on the
RCA's Board of Pensions since 1993, serving as president
from 1995 to 1999.
He has been a member of the Board of Directors of
the Whitney M. Young Jr. Health Center in Albany since 1988,
and was president of the board from 1996 to 1998. In 1998,
he received the Carlyle Adams Ecumenical Award from the
Capital Area Council of Churches for the founding vision for
the Ecumenical Witnesses at Baptism Program.
Mast has been at First Church since 1988. He was
previously minister of social witness and worship with the
RCA, serving from 1985 to 1988, and was pastor of Second
Reformed Church in Irvington, N.J., from 1978 to 1985. He
was assistant pastor with the Andrew Murray Congregation of
the Dutch Reformed Church in Johannesburg, South Africa,
from 1976 to 1977.
He holds his master of divinity degree from New
Brunswick Theological Seminary, and a master of philosophy
and a doctorate of philosophy from Drew University.
He and his wife Vicki, who is also a 1974 Hope
graduate, have three children: Andrew, and twins Katherine
and David.
Riekse, who graduated from Hope in 1941, has been
a physician in West Michigan for more than 50 years.
After completing his medical degree at the
University of Michigan in 1944, he interned at Butterworth
Hospital. He subsequently served as a captain in the U.S.
Army Medical Corps, but returned to Butterworth as a
resident in obstetrics and gynecology in 1947--and remained
at the hospital until 1988.
He chaired Butterworth's Department of Obstetrics
and Gynecology from 1961 to 1965, was chief of staff from
1985 to 1987 and was assistant vice president for medical
staff development from 1988 to 1992. He received the
hospital's Alumni Award for Outstanding Contributions to OB-
GYN in 1987.
Riekse was in private practice from 1950 to 1988,
and was president of West Michigan OB-GYN PC from 1970 to
1988. He was also an assistant clinical professor with
Michigan State University's College of Human Medicine from
1980 to 1988.
He was medical director of Planned Parenthood of
Kent County from 1965 to 1972, and has been medical director
of the Michigan Professional Insurance Exchange since 1988.
He is a member of numerous professional associations, and
his extensive community involvements have ranged from United
Way to Clancy Street Ministries to the Grand Rapids Human
Relations Committee.
Riekse and his wife, Helena, have five children:
James Riekse Jr.; Nancy Norden, who is a 1971 Hope graduate;
Meredith Riekse; Judy Marcus; and Laurel Hoesch, who is a
1976 graduate.