Jellema, Roderick H. | Heritage Hall, Hekman Library

Roderick H. Jellema (born 11 August 1927, the son of John Frank Jellema and Elizabeth Marian Den Hartigh) grew up in Holland and Ann Arbor, Michigan.  He graduated from Calvin College in 1951 and earned a PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 1962. In 1956, he began teaching introductory literature and composition courses in the English Department of the University of Maryland. He spent 35 years at the university as a professor of literature and was the founding director of its creative writing program. An award-winning poet, Jellema's work is in a number of anthologies and periodicals, he has published five volumes of his own work and three volume of poetry translated from Frisian. He became Professor of English Emeritus in 1991.

Jellema was married to Matrona Thelma Moe Van Zee; they had three children: John Frank (1955-1975), David Moe, and Michael.