2025 Alumni Appreciation Award – Dean Liddick ’60

Institutional memory is one of an organization’s most valuable assets. It reminds us of the ways God has worked in the past, offers the wisdom of hindsight, and provides helpful guidance for the future. Dean Liddick, a graduate of the Houghton College class of 1960, is the walking embodiment of Houghton’s institutional memory. If you have a question about Houghton history, Dean is your man.

To live as the keeper of institutional memory is a calling, one that doesn’t stop when one changes jobs or retires. In the twenty-five years since Dean took up the mantel of retirement, he has continued to serve as a writer, ghostwriter, editor, sounding board, historian and font of wisdom for the Houghton University community.

Dean Liddick grew up a missionary kid in India. At Houghton, he pursued a degree in history with a minor in English. He was a campus leader with Foreign Mission Fellowship (FMF) and had his own radio show with WJSL. During his time at Houghton, Dean met his wife, Carmen VanderVeen, also a member of the Class of 1960. Dean worked at the college press alongside press operator Al Smith and had the distinction of being the first student to operate the college press.

Life after college took Dean first to Indiana, where he worked as a pressman and a journalist; and then to Fort Dix, New Jersey, by way of Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and MP School at Fort Gordon, Georgia. After service with the Military Police, Dean was appointed Houghton College Director of Public Information in 1964. This role became a lifetime of service to Dean’s alma mater.

Dean is the creator of Houghton’s alumni magazine, originally known as Milieu and today known as Houghton Magazine.

Over the years, Dean has played a role in the creation of every published work of Houghton history, including Dr. Katherine Lindley’s and Dr. Frieda Gillette’s pictorial Houghton history And You Shall Remember, the centennial history Consider the Years, the biography of Stephen Paine entitled Deo Volente, Richard Wing’s Vine of God’s Own Planting and most recently Dr. Jack Connell’s book Heartbreak and Hope: A Homecoming Story of the Houghton Six.

Dean finished his Houghton career serving in the Office of Advancement where he inspires alumni and friends to actively engage in and support Houghton’s vital mission. Dean wasn’t content to ask others to give if he hadn’t already done the same. He and Carmen have faithfully supported endowed student scholarships and created an endowed fund to support the scholarship of Houghton’s Bible and theology faculty.

Dean’s roles with the alumni magazine and Advancement ambassador have made him the consummate connector of people. He has dedicated many years to helping organize class reunions, recruiting and inviting classmates to return to campus to celebrate their Houghton stories. A quarter of a century after retirement, Dean still receives questions and comments from alumni about the institution, about reunions and about Houghton Magazine—and he handles them all with his hallmark sense of humor and deep care for both Houghton and our alumni.

For Dean’s lifetime of commitment to the support and growth of Houghton University, for his tireless engagement in the life of the institution, and for his invaluable wisdom and insight founded on a steadfast faith in Christ and the heart of a historian, it is a privilege to present to Dean Liddick the 2025 Alumni Appreciation Award.