On November 3, 1957, George E. Haney, Jr., received his first call to First Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Waterloo, Iowa, where he served from 1957 to 1961. While living in Waterloo, he met Grace Vanden Bosch. Born on February 21, 1928, Grace grew up as the middle child of nine children in a farming community in Iowa. After graduating from eighth grade, Grace stayed home to help her mother with her younger siblings. She eventually graduated from high school in three years and from Calvin College with a teacher’s degree, also in three years. While teaching school in Pella, Iowa, her brother introduced her to a preacher from a nearby town—George Haney. Love grew and they married on this date in 1959. As a pastor’s wife, Grace faithfully shared her gift of hospitality. Grace kept busy raising their four children: Mary Anne, David, who served as the OPC’s director of finance and planned giving, John, and Stephen.
George was called as pastor of Pilgrim OPC in Bangor, Maine, from 1961-1968, and then to Falls OPC in Menomonee, Wisconsin from 1968-1974. During 1974, George was called as general secretary of the Committee on Home Missions and Church Extension, a position he held until 1982. George was back in the pulpit at Grace OPC in Vienna, Virginia, until 1985, when cancer brought him back to the OPC offices. He served as the Home Missions finance administrator from 1985 to 1987. George once again took on the role as general secretary of Home Missions from 1987-1990, then as a Home Missions consultant from 1990 until he entered Glory on May 22, 1999.
As a widow, Grace continued to show hospitality as she was able, graded papers for a prison ministry, and helped to teach international students to read. Grace moved to the Quarryville Presbyterian Retirement Community in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and received her Heavenly reward on October 1, 2014. They have eleven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Susan M. Felch, a Calvin College English professor and wife of OPC minister Douglas Felch, wrote more about Grace Haney in the recently published book, Choosing the Good Portion: Women of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, which is available on OPC.ORG here.
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