Berthal "Jack" Andrews

Dr. B. "Jack" Andrews, 99, of Battle Creek died at Bronson Methodist Hospital on Tuesday, January 19, 2016.
He was born November 16, 1916 in Campbell, Texas to Edwin Alvia and Bessie Pearl (Evinger) Andrews. He grew up in Kent, Ohio, Spring Arbor, MI, and Battle Creek where his family moved in 1934. He attended Battle Creek Central High School. Jack started early in life as an entrepreneur. During WWII he served with the U.S. Army in Guadalcanal. Jack owned Battle Creek Realty Company, had a trucking business, owned a restaurant and gas station and was a successful antique dealer.

Surviving are one of 8 brothers and his wife, Howard & Nancy Andrews, of Escondido, California; and 29 nieces and nephews and their families. He was preceded in death by his parents; seven brothers and their spouses, Burton and Mary Andrews, Burdette and Anabel Andrews, James and Leona Andrews, Harold and May Andrews, Marion and Glenna Andrews, Byron and Winifred Andrews, Eldon and Frieda Andrews; a sister and her husband, Ruth and Mel Swanson, and by seven nieces and nephews.

Jack enjoyed his work, worked hard and was successful. He generously donated to Spring Arbor University from which he received an Honorary Doctor's Degree in 2012 and had Andrews Hall named after him at SAU. In his younger years Jack was an avid golfer. At age 97 he clocked 555 miles on his bicycle in three months in Florida where he lived six months of the year for the past 25 years. He enjoyed real estate, antiques, and the stock market. Jack will be remembered as a generous, caring, and loving brother, uncle, and philanthropist.

Friends will be received 3:00-5:00 p.m. Sunday, January 31, 2016 at Farley Estes Dowdle Funeral Home & Cremation Care. Funeral services will be officiated by Dr. Brent D. Ellis, president of Spring Arbor University, at the funeral home 11:30 a.m. Monday, February 1, 2016. Military honors by the U.S. Army Honor Guard and interment will be held at Maple Grove Cemetery in Comstock Township, MI.

Memorial contributions in memory of Jack may be made to a charity of your choice. Personal messages for the family may be placed here at www.farleyestesdowdle.com.

The following was read by Dr. Charles Webb at the commencement ceremony in 2012, honoring Jack Andrews.

B. Jack Andrews, your association with our community began in 1924 when your parents, Edwin and Bessie Andrews, came to Spring Arbor to assume the pastorate of what was then known as the college or old stone church. Although your brothers and sister were educated at Spring Arbor Seminary (as it was then called), the Great Depression prevented your continuing your education and redirected you into a life of business and philanthropy.

You began by selling your mother's homemade ice cream and candy in front of the post office. Rather than spending your proceeds on yourself, by the time you were eighteen, you had saved enough to give your parents the down payment on their first house. You then built successful businesses in Battle Creek, including a gas station and a trucking business. These you sold, however, to serve in World War II, including during the critical and horrific six-month battle for Guadalcanal. During that time, you also lost both your parents and your hoped-for life partner. But you took these circumstances as a spur not to despair, but to trusting God and pursuing a lift of purpose and generosity.

Although you have achieved significant business success both in real estate and in investments, your real success has been in the lives of those you have assisted not only in your extended family, but also through generous support of the Salvation Army, the Red Cross and Spring Arbor University. You were able to help others not only through your business acumen, but also through your self-denying lifestyle that enabled maximum benefits to others. You epitomize the Wesleyan dictum to "earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can."

It is for that example of Christian living to all who know and know of you that it is my privilege, by the authority Vested in me by the State of Michigan and the Board of Trustees of Spring Arbor University, to bestow upon you the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.

Please join me in expressing our gratitude to Jack Andrews.

Dr. Charles Webb