Our 50 and 60 Year Alumni at Commencement

June 01, 2008

Our 60 Year Alumni

Calvin Malefyt

Calvin graduated from Hope College with a BA; Westminster Theological Seminary with a Th.M. in 1948 and Harvard University with a Ph.D. in 1966. He was awarded a Merrill Fellowship at Harvard in 1968.

Shortly after graduating from Westminster at age 22, his father died. He succeeded him as pastor of the Clarkstown Reformed Church, W. Nyack, NY. The next year, 1949, he received a call to Park Street Church, Boston, becoming the first minister to students.

In 1961, he became minister in the new Univ. Reformed Church, Ann Arbor, MI serving the Univ. of Michigan. From 1981-1991, he was the organizing pastor of the Chapel Hill, NC Reformed Church.

He has also served in churches in Moscow, Russia; Warsaw, Poland; and Bali, Indonesia. He has served on the faculty of the University of Michigan; the C.S. Lewis Institute, Wash., DC; and the Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte, NC.

As Staley Distinguished Christian Scholar, he has lectured at over 50 colleges and universities. He is currently minister-professor at large with the International Foundation, Wash., DC.

Ted Georgian

In 1948 he received his ThB and in 1956 a ThM. He has been the teaching elder at Grace OPC, Trenton, NJ; Covenant OPC, Rochester NY and New Life OPC, Williamsport, PA.

He has also had several rewarding post-retirement interim pastorates. For nearly 20 years, he served on the OPC Foreign Missions Committee.

He was blessed and blessed others on mission trips to Lebanon and Cyprus.

1948 Graduates pictured (l to r): Steve Cairns, Director of Alumni Relations; Ted Georgian, Gladys Georgian; Eleanor Hartman Malefyt, Calvin Malefyt; Dave Garner, Vice President for Alumni Relations and Educational Advancement

Our 50 Year Alumni

Calvin Libby

In 1933, he was born to Adventists and went to their college in Brookline, Massachusetts. One of the professors was a ThM from Westminster Theological Seminary. And Dr. Van Til occasionally spoke at chapel.

After graduating from Westminster with a BDiv in 1958, he taught high school Latin in Maine for 28 years. He was stated-supply at the Congregational Church in Limington, Maine for over 5 years. It is now shepherded by an OPC minister.

In the summer of 1966, he worked with two churches of the Presbyterian Church of Canada of Elliot Lake and Massey, Ontario.

Donald H. Taws

"Upon graduation from WTS in 1958 with a MDiv, my wife and I went to the country of Eritrea, East Africa, as missionaries under the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Returning in 1962, we had Orthodox Presbyterian pastorates in Colorado, Florida and New Jersey during the 30 year war of independence for Eritrea against Ethiopa.

"In 1992, after Eritrea declared its freedom and became recognized as a sovereign nation under the United Nations, Jeanette and I returned to Eritrea to re-open the work there, begin a Bible school and rebuild the hospital which had been destroyed in the fighting.

"We returned to the USA in 1994 and, after a time as Regional Home Missionary for the OPC, retired to North Carolina where we built a home. We went back to Eritrea for short periods at a later date. For the past 12 years I have been assisting in a PCA church in Hendersonville, and acting as Chaplain in a large retirement village."

1958 Graduates pictured (l to r): Reverend Donald H. Taws; Jeanette Taws; Dave Garner, Vice President for Alumni Relations and Educational Advancement; Mrs. Libby; Calvin Libby