Title: Henry Exoo Collection, 1930-1977
ID: COLL/084
Primary Creator: Henry Exoo (1911-1982)
Extent: 7.0 Boxes. More info below.
Arrangement: Folder level description
Forms of Material: Radio addresses, debates, etc., Sermons
Minister of the Christian Reformed Church. The collection includes sermons and radio messages. [See also the Campus Titles Database.]
Our collection of material, a gift of his wife, Bessie M. (May 1991), includes a selection of Heidelberg Catechism sermons, sermons based on Old and New Testament texts, church calendar, and other special day sermons and radio messages. We also have twenty tapes in our tape collection. One box of sermonic material contains radio messages, which were printed for distribution. It may be of interest to those researching sermonic materials that in general Christian Reformed ministers still preached “preparatory,” “Communion,” and “post-Communion” sermons. Where Communion services have become a monthly celebration, this threefold series has been changed. Our collection, however, reveals that Rev. Henry Exoo continued the practice.
In the brief “In Memoriam” printed in the yearbook of 1983, reference was made to Henry Exoo as “a hard-working pastor.” Rev. Exoo was a pastor in the Christian Reformed Church when congregations, large or small, were served by one pastor who may have had a part-time secretary. There were no team ministries with a full-time secretary.
In addition to his regular pastoral activities in the Sheboygan Christian Reformed Church, Henry was the radio pastor of the Old Time Religion broadcasts on six Wisconsin stations which covered Sheboygan (WKTS and WHBL), Madison, Green Bay, Waukesha, and Plymouth. Moreover, he served on many special classical and synodical assignments.
Henry Exoo was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1911. He studied at Calvin College, Western Reserve University, and Calvin Theological Seminary. The Calvin College annual, the Prism of 1939, described the graduate Henry Exoo as “thoughtful of others. . . . . he reads much and observes men’s words and deeds.”
After ordination, September 24, 1942, Rev. Henry Exoo began his active ministry in Battle Creek, Michigan (1942-1948). The following six years were spent in the First Christian Reformed Church of Fremont, Michigan. The longest period of his ministry, twenty-two years (1954-1976), was in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Through the radio ministry his name became familiar throughout that Wisconsin area.
Rev. Henry Exoo passed away, in his home, after a lengthy illness, May 10, 1982. He was seventy-one years of age. He was married to Bessie M. Jellema. Together they had six children.
Repository: Heritage Hall, Hekman Library
Alternate Extent Statement: 3.25 cubic ft.
Acquisition Source: Gift of B. Exoo
