Tena Alta Huizenga (1907-1978) | Heritage Hall, Hekman Library
Name: Tena Alta Huizenga (1907-1978)
Historical Note: Born 26 February 1907 in Chicago, Illinois, Huizenga, and from 1914-1916 lived in the Netherlands. After elementary and high school in Chicago, she attended, the Chicago Mission Training School, Garfield Park Community Hospital Training School for Nurses, and Moody Bible Institute. She applied to the Sudan United Mission as a nurse/missionary. She was accepted and begun serving Lupwe, Nigeria in 1937, eventually working for Christian Reformed Church World Mission when it took over that mission field. Effective as both a nurse and as a missionary, health problems due to her workload, the climate, and ulcer on both legs forced her to retire from the mission field in 1954. Back in Chicago, she resumed hospital nursing and was serving as the administration of the Chicago Home for the Elderly when she was diagnosed with lung cancer in October 1967. She died 28 January 1978.