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I attended grade school in one-room country schools: Grades 1-3 at Oak Creek School and Grades 4-8 at Dispatch Christian School. I attended the public high school in Downs, Kansas, graduating in 1956.
From 1956-1960 I attended Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, graduating with an A.B. degree with a major in mathematics and minors in chemistry and German.
From 1960-1963, I did graduate work in mathematics at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, receiving a Master's Degree in mathematics in 1961. I taught math at Calvin College from 1963-1967 and received a National Science Foundation Fellowship to resume graduate work. I did this at Michigan State University in East Lansing, receiving my Ph.D in mathematics in 1969. I also did graduate work equivalent to that required for a master's degree in computer science at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo off and on in the 1980s.
After 41 1/2 years of full-time teaching at Calvin — mathematics for the first half or so of that time and computer science for the rest — I retired in December of 2003. I had planned to retire a year or so before then, but decided to continue on for a few more semesters, in part because one responsibility of the Presidential Exemplary Teaching Award that I received on Feb. 14, 2002 was to be available to assist with the mentoring of new teachers. Since retiring, I have taught a section of a computer science course each semester until (2007) — when I started teaching only in the fall semester. Since then I have been teaching at least one section of CS 104: Applied C++, a 2-credit computer programming course required of all engineers. (After breaking my ankle badly in August, 2009, I was afraid I might not be able to teach that fall, but did manage to do one section, using a knee scooter to get around and thanks to my family taking me to and from school.)
One recent exciting highlight has been the establishment of the Larry and Sharlene Nyhoff Scholarship fund. Hopefully there will be enough in the fund by next year that a computing scholarship can be offered for the first time. (The declining slow / negative growth in the fund's accumulation caused by the economic downturn prevented that happening this year.)
With colleagues Sanford Leestma and Joel Adams I have coauthored several computer science textbooks since 1981, first with Macmillan Publishing Co. and more recently with Prentice-Hall. Being a coauthor with Joel Adams and my son Jeffrey of Java: An Introduction to Computing was a special endeavor. My first solo effort C++: An Introduction to Data Structures was published in 2001 and most recently, a new edition of this text entitled ADTs, Data Structures, and Problem Solving with C++, 2/E was published by Prentice hall in July, 2004. After a five-year respite from textbook writing, I am getting back into it with a brief introduction to C++ text for engineering and science students. It's scheduled to come out in early/mid 2010.
I have been married since 1960 to Sharlene VanderStelt. We have four children, Jeffrey, James, Julie, and Joan, all of whom live in the area. And we have 10 grandchildren . . . with the birth of another granddaughter imminent!