In Memoriam: Rev. Dick M. Stravers

A much-loved pastor, Dick Stravers was a genuinely kind and compassionate man with a gentle demeanor. “His passion for justice and desire for a better world were forefront in his beliefs—and often delivered with a twinkle in his eye,” a friend remembered in tribute. Dick, 98, died Jan. 12.

Dick grew up on a farm in Iowa, walking close to a mile every day for nine years to a one-room country school. “We were very poor and had no electricity until I was a senior in high school,” Dick recalled in an online interview by Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project. After high school he and 10 classmates joined the U.S. Army, during which time he served for a year in a peacekeeping mission in Italy. He completed his 18-month enlistment at Fort Ord in California.

The G.I. Bill (a veterans’ funding program of the U.S. government) made it possible for Dick to attend Calvin College (now University), after which he taught Latin for five years at Grand Rapids Christian High School. Feeling called to pastoral ministry, he then entered Calvin Seminary, graduated, and was ordained in 1963 at the age of 36.

Dick served West Park Christian Reformed Church, Cleveland, Ohio; Southern Heights CRC, Kalamazoo, Mich.; and Woodlawn CRC, Grand Rapids, Mich.; then returned to West Park CRC for 12 years before retiring in 1992. He continued to preach and visit the sick and elderly in a number of churches in the Holland, Mich., area, especially Pillar Church and Holland Heights CRC, until age 85.

Dick loved camping with his family. During his final years, his favorite activities were reading and spending time conversing with others. Many of those conversations occurred on the bench in front of the Stravers home, where he delighted in the stories people shared with him.

Dick is survived by Ruth, his wife of 74 years; four children and their spouses; 12 grandchildren; 19 great-grandchildren; and two great-great-grandchildren.