Dr. Henk Aay graduated with a B.A. (Geography and Planning) from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada and with a Ph.D. in Geography from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. Born in the Netherlands, Henk immigrated to Canada with his family at the age of thirteen. That country remained his home for 25 years and its strong British-inherited tradition in geography captured his interest and enthusiasm already in high school. After graduate school, Henk returned to Canada and joined the geography faculty at his alma mater, Wilfrid Laurier University, teaching full and part time for seven years. Before coming to Calvin in 1982, he briefly taught at the University of Toronto. Henk Aay was the first full time Ph.D. geographer at Calvin, hired to develop both geography and environmental studies. Before long, a geography and environmental studies minor and a geography major were available for Calvin students. The development and cultivation of these programs was a principal preoccupation during the first decade of his tenure at Calvin.

Henk Aay's scholarly interests have several focal points: the history and philosophy of geography as well as cultural and historical geography. He has published research on the settlement geography of the Dutch in West Michigan, on the relationships between nature and culture in works of fiction, on the historiography of geography, on environmental advertising, on the history of geographic education, on the perceptions of geography textbooks, and on the nature of the cultural landscape. Together with Sander Griffioen from the Free University of Amsterdam, Henk edited Geography and Worldview: A Christian Reconnaissance (1998), a collection of essays presented at a 1996 Calvin conference on Christian Worldview and Geography. Currently, Henk is writing a book on Arie Van Deursen, an important, but forgotten Dutch Christian geographer. Together with Ab van Langevelde from the Geography Department at the University of Groningen, Henk is writing several articles on Christian philosophical foundations for geography. With financial support from the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research and the Calvin Center for Christian Scholarship, Henk spent the summer of 2003 and Interim and Spring semester of 2004 as visiting professor in the Geography Department at the University of Groningen. During these visits Henk and Ab van Langevelde collaborated on researching and writing a number of articles for publication. Each article employs a Dooyeweerd-based philosophical approach to re-conceptualize key ideas in geography, for example, regional economic development and spatiality. The plan is to eventually bundle these pieces into a book, tentatively titled, Christian Philosophical Foundations for Geography. Herman Dooyeweerd together with D.H. Th. Vollenhoven are the founders of a comprehensive and integral Christian philosophical system which has become known around the world as reformational philosophy.

Dr. Aay's favorite landscapes and places come from his geographical roots and from the venues of his post-commencement geography field trips (with thanks to all the participants!): Amsterdam and other Dutch urban and cultural scenes, Toronto, Britain's Yorkshire, rails-to-trails, and Prince Edward Island.