CRC Chaplain Killed in Hit-and-Run Accident

UPDATE: A funeral service was held for Rev. Hoogewind on Monday, May 14 at Eastern Avenue CRC in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Rev. Allen Jay Hoogewind, a longtime Christian Reformed Church chaplain, died Tuesday in a hit-and-run accident in Nashville, Tenn., police said. Hoogewind was 71.

Police said Hoogewind, who was in Nashville for a conference, got off a city bus about 9:35 p.m. with a co-worker. He was standing in a crosswalk at Gallatin Pike and Walton Lane when he was hit by a dark-colored sedan, Metropolitan Nashville Police said in a news release.

This stretch of Gallatin Pike has been the site of two other pedestrian deaths in recent months, said the Tennessean newspaper.

After going through a green light and hitting Hoogewind, witnesses told Nashville police, the sedan continued south on Gallatin Pike. Police are continuing their search for the driver.

Hoogewind, who had been working at a Grand Rapids-area counseling center, was in Nashville with the co-worker to attend a conference on sexual addiction.

“The death of Al Hoogewind is very sad news for the Christian Reformed chaplains,” said Rev. George Cooper, a retired chaplain whose career included serving as a CRC chaplain in the U.S. Navy.

“Al  has been a leader in pastoral counseling and an expert in addictive personalities and profiles. He will be sorely missed.”

Hoogewind was currently working as a pastor and counselor at Centennial Park Counseling in the Grand Rapids area.

He treated clients with sexual and alcohol addiction, Jan Bentley, owner and president of the counseling center, told the Grand Rapids Press.

"He had a real skill for that as far as working with his people, not being judgmental and at the same time helping them find healing in their life," Bentley said.

Rev. Ron Klimp, director of the CRC's  Chaplaincy & Care Ministry, said Hoogewind had previously worked in Grand Rapids for Hope Network, “serving developmentally disabled and others who were out of the workforce and needed counseling and training to help them become productive and effective in life.”

He had also served as a prison chaplain and chaplain at a Grand Rapids alcohol-addiction recovery program. He was pastor of East Leonard CRC in Grand Rapids from 2002-2007.

His book, Parables of Hope ,was published in 1998 by Zondervan Inc.

“He was one of the first chaplains I interacted with as I began to consider chaplaincy myself,” says Klimp.

Ever since word has spread about Hoogewind’s death, says Klimp, his office has been receiving words of condolence for Hoogewind and his wife, children and grandchildren.

“I am amazed, as our chaplains respond to the news of his death, how many of them felt close to Al and felt that he had impacted their lives as well, which is a testimony to how energetic, outgoing, and loving he was,” said Klimp.