Jonathan Bradford of Grand Rapids and F. Stuart Kingma of Atlanta are the 1999 recipients of the Calvin College Distinguished Alumni Awards. The honorees were chosen at the February meetings of the Calvin Alumni Association Board and will be honored at the school's May 1999 Commencement celebration.

Bradford is a 1972 Calvin graduate who has served for the last 18 years as the executive director of the Inner City Christian Federation, a non-profit organization producing high quality and affordable housing for and with low income families in the city of Grand Rapids. ICCF began in 1974 as an outreach ministry of Eastern Avenue Christian Reformed Church. It struggled some in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but, thanks in large part to Bradford's visionary leadership, ICCF has become one of the state's true success stories in the area of non-profit housing. ICCF now not only provides emergency shelter but also builds new homes, rehabs abandoned homes and runs a mortgage program for those who cannot qualify for a conventional mortgage.

F. Stuart Kingma is a 1950 graduate of Calvin who was a 35-year public health official with the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. During his tenure there he worked on a variety of important research teams. He began by heading up national efforts to reduce the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases. In the 1960s he organized and directed a team of 200 health workers who inspected all the hospitals in the South to ensure that they were in compliance with the newly passed Civil Rights legislation. In 1972 he was detailed to the World Health Organization to help organize the smallpox eradication program in India and Bangladesh. In his final years at the CDC he developed a national plan to protect the country from chemical and biological warfare. Upon "retirement" he joined the staff of the Carter Presidential Center to manage a program aimed at combating river blindness in Africa.

"It is a pleasure to honor these two Calvin graduates," said Mike VanDenend, executive director of the Calvin Alumni Association. "They have, each in their own unique way, made significant contributions to their fields and to society as a whole. The Calvin Mission Statement says that we offer our hearts and lives to do God's work in God's world. Jonathan Bradford and Stuart Kingma exemplify that."

Both Bradford and Kingma will be honored at a celebration at Calvin on Thursday evening, May 20, and again during Commencement ceremonies on Saturday, May 22.

Calvin College has presented its Distinguished Alumni Awards annually since 1966. The awards are the highest honors that the school presents to its alumni and are intended to honor those who have made significant contributions in their field of endeavor.

Past recipients include people from all walks of life. The first honoree was Garret Heyns who was not only a teacher, principal and Christian school superintendent, but also warden of the Michigan State Reformatory and chairman of the Parole Board. Congressman Vernon Ehlers won the award in 1996. Grand Rapids businessmen Jay VanAndel and Richard DeVos both have been honored. The 1998 recipients were Calvin De Witt, a noted Christian environmentalist, and the Reverend Anthony Van Zanten, who has dedicated his ministry to the underserved of Chicago.