June Hamersma is the woman most well-known for creating the prestigious January Series at Calvin University, a fifteen-day lecture series in January. Although the series is well-attended now, it was not an easy road to make it into the Calvin staple as it is today.

June had deep roots in Grand Rapids, particularly in the Dutch community. Her great-grandfather on her mother’s side was one of the first immigrants in the Van Raalte Colony in Holland, Michigan. Her family remained in the area. June’s mother, Cecilia Zuidema, was born and raised in Grand Rapids. Her father immigrated from the Netherlands to Grand Rapids. Because of these connections, June’s Dutch and Christian Reformed heritage was incredibly important to her.

June was born at the start of the Great Depression. Around the time of her birth in 1929, her family fell on hard times. Her father was a musician in a band and ended up leaving the family during the Depression. This left her mother to support four kids on a single income as a laundry sorter. Because of the family’s tight finances, June had to work through her school years. Her older siblings dropped out of high school in 10th grade, but June was determined to finish out her education. In high school, she worked to pay her Christian school tuition on her own. 

June’s educational aspirations did not end there. She decided to pursue a college degree. Her mother did not want her to get a college degree, as June “would get married and have children so [she] did not need [it].” However, June worked multiple jobs to pay her own tuition so she could receive a bachelor’s degree at Calvin College.

At Calvin, June studied music, history, and philosophy. She “didn’t know what [she] wanted to be,” but she wanted to learn about “people, God, [and] literature.” Having such a broad education, June felt she could take on anything. Out of college, she started a job teaching third grade at Allendale Christian School, despite having never taken an education class. After a year of teaching, she decided that it was not the career path for her, and instead started as a receptionist at a radio station, WFUR.

For eight years, June climbed the ranks at WFUR. Eventually, she became the women’s editor and program director. This was the first time a woman was a program director of an AM radio station in the United States. 

When she was 28 years old, June reconnected with someone she had known in her time at Calvin, John Hamersma. She had a “whirlwind courtship,” getting married after six months of being together. The pair decided to move to New York together for John to start his doctorate. 

Because of her move, June had to leave her position at WFUR. It was “the only time [she had] been discriminated against.” The men who took over her position were paid twice her salary. Her supervisor’s reasoning was “those men have families,” and she did not.

In New York, June served as Director of Publicity and Public Relations at Riverside Church. Public relations was a new field in 1957. The church was vying for the last highly sought after commercial FM license in the area. They “needed someone who could produce a log and produce programming instantly so that they could show it to the FCC.” June would be the one to do it. Because of her work, the church received the license and went on air soon after.

 When John was getting ready to accept a position teaching music at Calvin College, Riverside Church asked if she could stay on with them, even offering to fly her out to Grand Rapids every four days. She turned the incredible offer down because she was committed to her marriage and to raising her young children, John Warner and Mary. She and her family returned to Grand Rapids and she became a stay-at-home mother for a time. In 1969, she took a job at Calvin as a concert manager, but again left in 1973 to focus on her family. In her off time, she would volunteer at the Butterworth Hospital and with the Susan Lowe Guild.

In 1987, June’s children were grown up and her husband, John, had an established career as a professor of music at Calvin. The provost of Calvin reached out to her and asked if she had any ideas on how to fix Calvin College’s ill-attended lecture series. At the time, only 50 people attended the series on average. Many professors thought that it should “die a natural death” and that the series was “a waste of college time and college money.” But June envisioned the series as a “powerful public relations tool” for the college. 

She began work on three conditions: that she would have complete control over the series, she would do the public relations and advertising, and they would find her a proper place in the college with office equipment and support staff. Her wishes granted, June got to work. In her first year, average attendance leaped up to 368 speakers. At the time of her oral history interview in 1999, they were up to an average of 1400 in attendance. June still had complete control over who came to speak at the college. June’s public relations skills and knack for finding interesting, engaging, and even controversial speakers elevated the series to new heights. Now a three-time Silver Bowl award recipient from the International Platform Association, the series has maintained its quality and popularity. It is a testament to June Hamersma’s skill and commitment to community and public relations that the series lives on.

Sources

“June Hamersma,” Grand Rapids Press, February 18, 2020. https://obits.mlive.com/us/obituaries/grandrapids/name/june-hamersma-obituary?id=8670916

This biography is adapted from a transcript of an oral history interview. To learn more about oral histories, click here.