Find

Photograph

Catalog Number
2019.1.1198
Description
Black and white photograph showing  men on bicycles in front of Bishop and Alofs store. The store sold and repaired bicycles and other small machines.  It is thought the shop may have been on 9th Street and River Avenue.
The man on the bicycle on the far left of the photo is Bernard Rowan.
History
Randall P. "Randy" Vande Water was born in Zeeland, MI on 3-5-1930 to Bill and Kathryn (Kitty Van Ry) Vande Water. The Vande Waters moved to Holland in 1937. He graduated from Holland High School in 1948 and Hope College in 1952.

He edited the Fort Bliss, TX News from 1952-1954 during the Korean conflict and announced the Fourth Army Boxing Tournament on the Armed Forces Radio Network. In 1948 he started announcing The Holland Evening Sentinel local news on WHTC, continuing through his college years.

He spent 4 decades at the Holland Sentinel working as sports editor, city editor, editorial page editor, and managing editor. Randy also authored or co-authored several books on Holland area history.

During those years Vande Water gave numerous illustrated lectures to civic, church and college groups on various subjects relating to the area’s history. He authored a four-volume series of Holland Happenings, Heroes and Hot Shots, Millennium Memories, Holland the Tulip Town, Zeeland, A Walk Through Time, 100 Years of Hope College Basketball, A Century of Heinz Holland, Holland Furnace Co. and the Holland American Band.

Randall (Randy) P. Vande Water, age 88, of Holland, passed away Friday, June 22, 2018.