English professor had love for teaching, arts
Grace Huitsing was an English professor at Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights for 19 years.
“She was tremendously caring for her students, especially the foreign students who came from far away and didn’t have family close by,” said retired Elmhurst College English professor Mary Sytsma, who earlier worked with Huitsing at Trinity Christian. “She sometimes would bring those students to her home for the holidays.”
Huitsing, 98, died of a heart condition Oct. 11 at her home, said her niece, Barbara Schultze. She had been a Carol Stream resident for the past three years and prior to that lived in Wheaton.
Born in Oak Park to a Dutch immigrant father, Huitsing graduated from Chicago Christian High School in Palos Heights. Unable to afford college right after high school, Huitsing worked for several years before going to college. She received a bachelor’s degree from Calvin College in Michigan — now known as Calvin University — in 1946, and then a graduate degree in English from the University of Michigan.
Huitsing began her career as an English teacher at Illiana Christian High School, which now is located in Dyer, Indiana. One of her students, Joyce Vandermolen, was in the first graduating class at Illiana, which was founded in 1945.
“She loved education, and probably appreciated (her college education) more than someone who didn’t have that gap,” Vandermolen said. “Her life in a way was dedicated to teaching.”
After about three years at Illiana, Huitsing took a job teaching English at Grand Rapids Christian High School, where she taught for 20 years. In 1968, she shifted to teaching college, signing on as an assistant professor of English at Trinity Christian.
Huitsing later was promoted to associate professor.
“She loved students, and being part of their lives and spreading her love of literature,” Schultze said. “She really loved all of the arts.”
After retiring from Trinity Christian in 1987, Huitsing traveled to China for 11 consecutive summers to serve as a volunteer instructor of English as part of the English Language Institute there. Huitsing later taught English as a second language to Vietnamese refugees at her church for many years, friends said. Through her church, Huitsing also helped care for a refugee family from Ethiopia, Sytsma said.
“Grace was a tireless, tireless volunteer for helping that family and their English skills,” Sytsma said.
Trinity Christian named Huitsing an honorary alumna of the year in 2011.
There were no immediate survivors.
“She was the kind of person who never married, but her arms were full,” Sytsma said. “She had lots of people who she loved and cared for.”
Services were held.