Geraldine Grunow Prize named after retired instructor

Release Date
Geraldine Grunow outside on a winter's day.

Students: submit entries for the Grunow Prize and Barrett Contest by 2/27

Retired HFC English instructor and long-time community activist Geraldine Grunow was astonished and flattered to learn a writing award was being named after her.

“I was at a wonderfully cheerful, noisy party at the home of English instructor Dr. John Rietz when English instructor Dr. Chelsea Lonsdale told me about the proposal to have the award named after me,” recalled Grunow. “I didn’t hear her very well, but what I did hear, I couldn’t believe! I had to ask her to repeat herself. I felt overwhelmed with surprise and gratitude to be remembered in this way. This typically kind and meaningful gesture from colleagues I admire so much means the world to me.”

Excited to meet the first winner

The Geraldine Grunow Prize for Excellence in Community-Engaged Writing promotes and celebrates the community-engaged academic writing of HFC students. It is now part of the annual Francis G. Barrett Creative Writing Contest with the Larry Colter Poetry Prize and Grunow Writer’s Prize.

Here is more information about the 2026 Grunow Prize.

Lonsdale is excited to be able to honor Grunow in this way. “Because we are a community college, I really wanted to emphasize writing as social action: Our academic work can and does extend outside of the classroom to engage and to serve our communities, wherever those may be. Geraldine encouraged her students to do exactly that, and her legacy continues to shape the writing and instruction that happens at HFC. Though I only taught alongside Geraldine for a short time, she’s been a great inspiration, and I’m excited that we’re able to create this prize,” said Lonsdale.

Students are invited to submit their community-engaged academic writing (writing completed for a class or directed study) for the Grunow Prize. The judges are especially interested in writing that:

  • Addresses community issues.
  • Includes community members as part of a research methodology.
  • Demonstrates a commitment to social justice.

The deadline for submissions is Friday, February 27. Submissions for the Grunow Prize should be sent to LookingGlass@hfcc.edu. Winners will be notified by Friday, April 3, and honored Thursday, April 16, from 12:40 to 2:00 p.m. in the Adray Auditorium (Room F-100) in the MacKenzie Fine Arts Center (Building F on the main campus).

“I’ll surely be very excited to meet the first winner!” said Grunow. “The date is marked on my calendar with a large asterisk!”

Passing on an appreciation of reading and writing to students

The eldest of four, Grunow was born in Winchburgh, Scotland. She has also lived in Ghana, West Africa; and the United States. Grunow lived in Detroit for nearly 40 years before moving to Dearborn in 2017. She is married to Ken, her husband of 53 years, whom she met in Ghana. They have three children and five grandchildren.

Grunow completed high school overseas. She earned her master’s degree in English and Latin from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, graduating with honors. She also earned a diploma in education from the University of Aberdeen.

Grunow taught in Edinburgh, in Ghana, and in Detroit at the College for Creative Studies. She joined HFC (then Henry Ford Community College) as a part-time instructor in 1989 and became a full-time instructor in 1990, retiring in 2017.

“I loved reading and writing, and I wanted to pass on an appreciation of these riches to others,” she said. “I really love it when students demonstrate they’ve understood an idea that I’ve tried to explain.”

An advocate since her youth

When she was in high school, Grunow had opportunities through her family, school, and church to volunteer in a soup kitchen and to visit the sick and elderly. After graduating in the late 1960s, she was inspired by the Peace Corps model to volunteer overseas. The four years she spent teaching in a seminary in northern Ghana, near the border with Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta), had a strong influence on her.

“This was the most significant exposure I’ve had to inequity, but I think I’ve always had a realization of my good fortune – family, friends, education, health, food, shelter – and have wanted to somehow mitigate the situation of those who lack access to many of these rights and amenities,” she said.

For more than 50 years, Grunow has been active in universal human rights and civic engagement causes. She has been involved with the following organizations:

“I try to do as much as I can!” she said. “In these turbulent times, Ken and I join other activists in protest against what we see as gross violations of the human rights of vulnerable members of our community. We also write letters to and about prisoners of conscience and individuals at risk. Amnesty International estimates that letters regarding those who are imprisoned often lead to improvement, including access to medical care, legal help, better food, clothing, and sometimes, release from prison. Letter-writing works! We also wrote many letters for Bread for the World, which lobbies the U.S. government to maintain or increase funding to end hunger in the U.S. and overseas. I’m a member of the LWV and continue to support their wonderful work to keep elections free and fair.”

HFC English instructor Ruth Ann Schmitt occupies Grunow’s former office.

“Geraldine is a quiet political force,” said Schmitt. “While at HFC, she wrote letters supporting the HFC Eshleman Library, students’ rights, and any injustice she saw. She is still passionate about human rights locally and internationally, putting her writing to good use, recognizing the communities that go unheard or unseen.”

Serendipitous event led to teaching at HFC

Grunow’s affiliation with HFC began in 1988. Then-HFC anthropology instructor Dr. Nabeel Abraham invited Grunow to speak about Amnesty International. Afterward, he suggested she apply for a part-time teaching position and introduced her to then-HFC Division Chair of English Dr. Ed Chielens.

“Nabeel, Ed, and all the employees I spoke with were very positive about working at HFC, particularly about how the students, many of whom were facing considerable challenges, came with unique skills and were willing to work hard for success,” recalled Grunow. “I was delighted but nervous to be hired as a part-time instructor, and then a full-time instructor.”

One of her many poignant memories at HFC includes teaching the Business and Technical Writing course in the early 1990s. One section consisted of non-traditional students, most of them male, who were earning a certificate in one of the College’s trade and apprenticeship programs. Grunow assigned The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, a collection of short stories based on his experiences as a soldier in Vietnam, as one of the texts for the semester.

“I was pleased that this text resonated with the students and with some of their family members,” said Grunow. “Many students told me that a father or an uncle had picked up the book and read it straight through. They and the students found it a gripping read that addressed the physical and psychological complexities of warfare. One student, as he said goodbye at the end of the semester, said he had never read a whole book in his life, but reading this one had made him resolve to become a reader!”

Fierce about justice

Grunow wore many other hats at the College. She served as:

  • Secretary and chair of the Handbook Committee.
  • Secretary of the Library Committee.
  • Coordinator of the Cultural Arts program.
  • Faculty advisor to HFC’s Amnesty International student chapter.
  • Henry Ford II Honors Program mentor.

“A highlight of the Honors Program was spending a week in Ireland with a student, who researched Irish art and calligraphy,” said Grunow.

She was grateful that HFC instructors were well-represented by the American Federation of Teachers Local 1650.

“Our union contract allowed us to be relaxed about aspects of work that would have otherwise been stressful: Pay, tenure, health insurance, and retirement. We were also able to work in collegiality with administration on issues such as course content and assessment,” she said. “Nobody could ask for better colleagues – not just fellow instructors, but also kind and efficient staff members. Most students were friendly in a way that wasn’t common when I taught elsewhere; I appreciated the opportunity to work with academically gifted students and academically challenged students. The campus also provided opportunities to enjoy the work of other instructors and students: Art exhibits, shows at the Hammond Planetarium, theatre and musical performances, meals at Fifty-One O One, even exercise programs at the gym!”

HFC English instructor Scott Still worked with Grunow for nearly 15 years.

“What is there not to admire about Geraldine?” said Still. “She is a wonderful human being who is committed to just causes, and she has an amazingly sneaky and understated sense of humor. She often drops ‘comedic time bombs,’ comments that leave you chuckling about five, 10 minutes or more after you walk away from a conversation with her.”

Grunow reminds Still of a lyric, “thundering velvet hand,” which is from Dan Fogelberg’s 1981 song “Leader of the Band.”

“Geraldine has the sweetest, gentlest soul of anyone I ever met,” said Still. “But she is equally quietly fierce when it comes to matters of justice – social, labor, or otherwise – and she was a dedicated and passionate teacher and colleague as well.”