Dance Department Founder Maxine DeBruyn Dies
December 10, 2020 — by Greg Olgers
Dance Department Founder Maxine DeBruyn Dies
Retired faculty member Maxine DeBruyn, who pioneered the creation of the college’s
nationally accredited dance department beginning in the 1960s and was active in dance
education internationally for more than half a century, died on Wednesday, Dec. 9,
2020. She was 83.
She initiated the Department of Dance at Hope with a single course shortly after coming
to the college in 1965. From that first class, the program grew into a department
in 1974 and a major in 1984. The academic program has been accredited by the National
Association of Schools of Dance (NASD) since 1982.