Entrepreneur DeVos commencement speaker at newly named Kuyper College

Amway-cofounder brings gift

GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan - During commencement exercises for the newly renamed Kuyper College, the former Reformed Bible Institute, its president Dr. Nicholas V. Kroeze announced that commencement speaker Rich De Vos had come with a major gift for the school. The gift in memory of Jack Van Laar, who held a professorate in music at the College from 1952 to 1988, funds the faculty chair for the new Music and Worship major at Kuyper College. The Chair is named after Mr. Van Laar.

According to the Kuyper College, the gift will help it develop a premier music program. Dr. Kroeze said that the gift by Rich and Helen De Vos serves as an incentive to ”staff, faculty, students, donors and our many other stakeholders to continue to provide our students a well-rounded biblical and comprehensive academic college experience which allows them to see, understand and live all of life through the filter of Scripture.”

The RBI was founded in 1939 and now has a student body of 300. Kuyper College offers 17 bachelor’s degree programs and 16 study abroad opportunities.

Billionaire Amway cofounder De Vos and his wife are mayor funders of a range of community projects in Western Michigan and beyond. Numerous such projects have their and business partner Van Andel’s name attached to them.