The Man Who Set the Standard by Tamara Fynaardt
In the late 1920s, Northwestern’s board was finally ready to add a junior college to Northwestern Classical Academy. Leadership would be key. Principal Thomas Welmers told the board, “What we need … is a man who is enthusiastic and can give all his time … in the interests of this institution.”
That man was Dr. Jacob Heemstra. Born in 1888 in northwest Iowa, he graduated from the academy in 1906. After earning a degree from Hope College, he attended Princeton and Western Theological Seminary.
From 1914 to 1918, he simultaneously pastored Trinity Reformed Church and attended the University of Chicago. He then became a professor at Central College where he taught education, religion and psychology and also served as registrar.
In 1928, at 40 years old, he became Northwestern’s first college president.
Much of his 23-year presidency was a struggle for the college’s survival. During the Depression, Heemstra pleaded for money from supporters to ensure the wellbeing of his underpaid—even unpaid—staff.
During the 1940s, as students and faculty were drafted into World War II, the junior college’s enrollment plunged from 128 students in 1940 to 33 in 1944. Twenty Iowa junior colleges closed during the war, but Northwestern remained afloat as Heemstra conserved funds and found new sources of support.
He also battled the Reformed Church in America, fighting for fair and adequate financial support from the denomination’s Board of Education and the board’s secretary, the Rev. Willard Brown.
In 1932 Heemstra requested Board of Education funds be reapportioned now that there were three RCA colleges. He was shocked when, instead of receiving funding, he received a letter in which Brown proposed Northwestern close.
Brown had talked to Central College administrators, and Northwestern students could transfer there—especially if the additional students were accompanied by funding from Northwestern’s supporting churches.
Heemstra responded with an angry seven-page letter, declaring, among other things, he had “no intention of closing Northwestern’s doors.”
During his presidency, Heemstra directly contributed to the growth of the college’s academic and co-curricular programs. He hired faculty and enabled many to earn their doctorates.
He raised funds for remodeling a house into Dykstra Hall in 1945 and adding to Science Hall in 1948. In 1950 Heemstra Hall was built and named for the man who championed its construction.
Heemstra retired from the presidency in 1951 and taught in the religion department until his death in 1957, at 70 years old.
Ralph Mouw ’36, ’38, a Northwestern professor from 1947 to 1983, remembers Heemstra as a model of dedication. “He stuck with Northwestern all those difficult years,” says Mouw. “He inspired loyalty.”
When Gerald De Jong wrote From Strength to Strength for the college’s centennial, he dedicated the volume to Heemstra, claiming, “There has been no single individual … more responsible for [Northwestern’s] success.”