The alumni H-Club at Hope College will present its "Hope for Humanity Award" to Ron Boeve, a member of the Class of 1960 who is a long-time Holland realtor and assistant baseball coach and volunteer at Hope, on Saturday, Oct. 14.
The award, first presented in 1990, recognizes Hope athletic alumni for consistent service to others and demonstrating the values of Christian commitment and service. The H-Club consists of Hope alumni who were athletic letter winners and other honorary letter winners as approved by the H-Club's Board of Directors.
The group will honor Boeve during its annual Homecoming luncheon, which will be held in the Haworth Inn and Conference Center. During the luncheon the H-Club will also celebrate the 100 years that the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA), of which Hope is a member, has featured baseball as a sport.
Boeve has served as assistant baseball coach at the college for 23 years. He was a stand-out player as a student, winning recognition that included being chosen by his team mates as Hope's most valuable player in 1959 and selection to the All-MIAA team twice as a catcher.
A letter-winning athlete in two sports, he also played football at the college. In addition, his activities while attending Hope also included the Cosmopolitan fraternity.
Boeve is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Alumni H-Club and a past member of the college's Alumni Association Board of Directors. Active in Hope fundraising efforts, he is also a member of Hope's Second Century Club. He and his wife Sunny, who has also been an active volunteer on the college's behalf, received Meritorious Service Awards from Hope in January of 1994.
Boeve is a 1953 graduate of Holland High School. He attended Hope from 1953 to 1955, subsequently served in the U.S. Army with the 101st Airborne Division, and then returned to the college from 1958 until graduating in January of 1960 with a major in business administration.
From Hope he went on to positions with both the Ford Motor Company and Herman Miller Inc. He was then a partner with both Woodland Realty (1973-81) and Timber Brook Realty (1981-94), and has stayed active in the profession since Timber Brook was sold to Greenridge Realty in 1994. He was president of the Holland Board of Realtors and named Holland's Realtor of the Year in both 1982 and 1994. In 1982 he also received the Michigan Association of Realtors Community Service Award.
Boeve has also been active as a volunteer in the community and with his church. He served on the Holland Board of Education for eight years, including three years as president. He is also a past member of the consistory of Third Reformed Church in Holland and a past member of the board of the Holland Area Chamber of Commerce.
He and Sunny have three children: Sue, a 1981 Hope graduate; Gretchen, a 1986 American University graduate; and Craig, a 1990 Hope graduate.