September 25, 1966 – January 22, 1996

Perhaps the most telling memory of the tragic loss of 1988 graduate Gina Van Laar Lanser and her unborn daughter, Megan Michelle, can be found in the stunned but respectful silence of those who never met her.  Such was the reach of Gina Lanser’s personality and achievements that the mention of her death shocked people she had never known personally but who knew of her spirit and standards from others.

And with good reason.

“I am a positive, conscientious, hard-working person,” she wrote on her Hillsdale College application.  “I have been raised in a strong Christian home and try to apply my beliefs in every area of my life,” she continued, and added, “I am convinced that Hillsdale will provide the challenge and resources to help me define and achieve my educational goals.”  “Delightful,” wrote a counselor carefully at an angle in one corner of an Admissions Office telephone interview sheet.

Many people know that she was a high school cross country state champion. Not many people know that her junior high school didn’t even have a track team, but Gina Van Laar ran anyway, out of “interest, dedication and the desire to excel,” according to a friend.

At Hillsdale, she won seven athletic and four academic All-American awards and a national championship, but her legacy involved much more than awards.  In high school and at Hillsdale, she never got a grade below an “A.” She was, literally, an inspiration to all.

So great was the impact of her loss that Coach Diane Philipp spent over a week in Grand Rapids and on the telephone talking with members of the 1984-1988 cross country and indoor and outdoor track teams.  With one exception, all of Lanser’s cross country teammates attended the memorial service.  One who could not come had just had a baby and named her Gina.  “Even now, over seven years later,” claimed Coach Philipp, “it’s as though she’s still here.”

And in her own way, she always will be.

We have lost the valedictorian of the class of 1988, the Outstanding Senior Woman, the President’s Ball Queen, an all-American athlete many times over, a national champion and an outstanding example of dedication, desire and determination.  We have also lost a valued friend.

We have gained what she would have wanted us to gain from these tragic circumstances: the knowledge and belief that she was a modest but highly accomplished young woman of grace and honor who lived her life guided by the principles of faith, family and friendship, and that these principles live on, strengthened by her life and values.

We should remember Gina Van Laar Lanser with the words of St. Paul’s second epistle to Timothy: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

This article appeared in the Winter 1996 issue of Hillsdale Magazine.