Howard and Verna De Haan and Julia Bouws

In December, 1986, Howard De Haan, a franchisee of Russ’ Restaurants in Kent County, presented the college with a gift of $50,000 in honor of Mr. J. Russel Bouws, founder of Russ’ Restaurants. The income from this gift will be used to award scholarships to students at Calvin who are employed by Russ’ Restaurants in Kent County.

Mr. Bouws established the first Russ’ Restaurant in Holland, Michigan, in 1934. Mr. Bouws established a reputation at Russ’ of serving excellent food at reasonable prices and has developed a very successful chain of family restaurants in West Michigan. Through this scholarship program, Mr. De Haan would like to recognize Mr. Bouws for all he has done for him and for the people of West Michigan.

In January, 2011, Julia Bouws, spouse of J. Russel, provided Calvin with a gift of just over $18,000 as part of her estate. Mrs. Bouws’ family wishes to use the income from her gift to expand the scholarship to include students at Calvin who are employed by Russ’ Restaurants throughout West Michigan.