Rienk Kuiper

Who was Rienk Kuiper?

Rienk Bouke Kuiper was born in Garrelsweer, in the municipality of Loppersum, in the Netherlands. His family moved to Grand Haven, Michigan in 1891 when his father accepted a call to be minister of the Christian Reformed congregation there. Kuiper graduated from the University of Chicago; Indiana University; Calvin Theological Seminary; and Princeton Seminary. He served as the pastor of several congregations in West Michigan, including one in the Reformed Church in America.

In 1928 he accepted a one-year appointment to Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, as Professor of Systematic Theology. The Synod of the Christian Reformed Church persuaded Kuiper to accept the presidency of Calvin College in 1930. During his tenure the economic impacts of the Great Depression began to be keenly felt. Although enrollment did not decline, partly because a lack of jobs meant young people pursued education, the downturn forced the college to cut costs and expenses. Faculty voluntarily took pay cuts, as high as 40 percent. Kuiper also found it difficult to mediate the growing differences of opinion among faculty and between faculty and the Board of Trustees over the school's direction.