MERRY CHRISTMAS
to BOB DEVRIES
@ CALVIN SEMINARY,
GRAND RAPIDS, MI
Robert De Vries 
Professor of Church Education and Director of the Master of Arts Programs (1977)
A.B. (Calvin College, 1963)
B.D. (Calvin Theological Seminary, 1967)
Th.M. (Calvin Theological Seminary, 1973)
D.Min. (McCormick Theological Seminary, 1983)
Ph.D. (Michigan State University, 1987)
Prof. DeVries ("Bob" as he is known to everyone) began serving Calvin Theological Seminary as the Coordinator of Field Education in 1977 and moved into Church Education a decade later. Raised in Grand Rapids by parents who were both educators (the Science Hall on the Calvin Campus is named in honor of his father "Doc" DeVries), both Calvin and education are in his blood. He has served the seminary and the Christian Reformed Church in a number of key positions, serving on denominational and school boards as well as teaching internationally. He has written a basic textbook in Church Education published in France (Transmettre la Foi) and has developed training materials through the seminary's Timothy Institute designed to equip national pastors in Africa in training others in the church's educational ministry.
"As I approach my retirement from full time teaching at Calvin Theological Seminary in July, 2005, I am still energized by the number of students whom God has called into a specialized educational ministry. I am convinced that the church's ministry to her children, youth and young adults is critical to the vitality and future of the church. We must aggressively meet the challenge of the radical cultural shifts in North America as well as the globalization of the world. The electronic and media revolution forces us all to think "outside the box" about our ministry methods while staying faithful to our Biblical foundation. More than ever, the church needs creative and dedicated youth pastors committed to their calling."
Bob had been married for twenty-eight years to his first wife, Charlene, before she died of ovarian cancer. Together they had three children. He remarried four years later to Susan Zonnebelt-Smeenge, a licensed clinical psychologist who had also been widowed. Together they have developed an intense educational and pastoral ministry to those who are dying and bereaved, and to pastoral and medical care-givers. They speak internationally for organizations such as The National Funeral Directors Association, American Association of Christian Counselors, and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. Together they have written three books on dying and grief: Getting to the Other Side of Grief: Overcoming the Loss of a Spouse (1998), The Empty Chair: Handling Grief on Holidays and Special Occasions (2001), and Living Fully in the Shadow of Death: Assurance and Guidance to Finish Well (2004).
https://www.calvinseminary.edu/aboutUs/facultyStaff/dvrc.php
