Martin Huizenga (1903-1953) | Heritage Hall, Hekman Library

Martin was born in New Groningen, Michigan, March 12, 1903.  He made profession of faith in the North Street Christian Reformed Church of Zeeland.  It was during a period of “oversupply of ministers” that he graduated with twenty other candidates from the Calvin Seminary in 1933.  His first assignment was as stated supply at Martin, South Dakota.  He was ordained when he accepted a call to Holland Center, South Dakota, in 1935.  His inaugural sermon was based on I Corinthians 1:23,24.  In the fall of 1940, he began his ministry in Saginaw, Michigan.  Three years later, in 1943, he moved to Alto, Wisconsin.  His ministry in Cadillac, Michigan, began in the fall of 1947.  The newly organized church in this northern Michigan city soon doubled in size from its small beginning of thirteen families.

Martin Huizenga’s life came to a sudden and tragic end shortly before his fiftieth birthday.  He and his wife Grace were fatally injured in a head-on auto accident, leaving their only child, Rosalie, an orphan.  The Huizenga family was on its way from Cadillac to Grand Rapids when struck by a car on a fog-shrouded highway, February 20, 1953.

Rev. M. Huizenga was a caring pastor and an able preacher.  The sudden death of the pastor and his wife was a very traumatic experience for the young congregation as well as for the denomination.