Remembering Gladys Hunt

Gladys “Rusty” Hunt touched the lives of untold numbers of students and InterVarsity staff through her writing and speaking, and through her leadership role at Cedar Campus, InterVarsity’s Great Lakes training and retreat center. Together with her husband Keith, Gladys hosted students, faculty, and staff, year after year, offering warm hospitality and foundational Christian training.

Gladys and Keith researched and wrote For Christ and the University, The Story of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of the U.S.A./1940-1990. In a footnote, Gladys described her first meeting with an InterVarsity staffworker at Michigan State University in 1945, who suggested she invite fellow students to a Bible study in her room. “That was a mind-blowing suggestion, but doing it was a life-changing experience,” she wrote. “I found out how to let the gospel loose.”

Gladys authored more than 20 other books, including Honey for a Child’s Heart and Women of the Old Testament. She has also written a weblog in recent years, also under the title Honey for a Child’s Heart.

A notice on the Cedar Campus website reports: “On Feb. 22, 2010, Gladys underwent surgery to replace her aortic heart valve at the Meijer Heart Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan. What was hoped to be a quick recovery became a four month stay in the hospital, which came to a peaceful end on the fourth of July when early Sunday morning Gladys went Home to be with her Lord and Savior.” Gladys was 83.

Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, July 8, 2010, at the Thornapple Covenant Church, 6595 Cascade Road SE, Grand Rapids. Friends may make memorial contributions to InterVarsity Christian Fellowship – Cedar Campus capital fund.