Moyer has ministered to hundreds of college students since he moved back to Hillsdale in 2020.
Courtesy | Jack Moyer

After Nancy died, the house was too quiet. 

For 57 years, Jack Moyer had awakened to the sound of her voice, but that stopped suddenly six years ago. In less than 12 hours, sepsis took his wife, the woman he had loved since he was 15. 

Moyer met Nancy in Hillsdale, Michigan, where he was born and raised. He attended Hillsdale College and graduated in 1964 with a degree in physical education. Jobs and family would take him away from the place he had always called home, but his wife’s passing in 2019 was the catalyst for an unexpected calling back to the small town. 

“It was so quick,” Moyer said. “I had no clue how this had happened; it was unreal.”

For a time, Moyer tried to fill the void with the small rituals of routine: morning coffee, a round of golf, and church on Sunday. But even there, Nancy’s absence hung in the air.

“All of a sudden, she’s just not there,” Moyer said. “I had lost a part of me.”

Jack remembered a friend asking him if he was angry that God had taken his wife from him. 

“I’m not angry,” Moyer recalled saying to his friend. “I miss her, but I’m thankful that I know she’s in heaven because Jesus was her Lord and Savior. God’s got a plan, and I don’t know what it is, but that’s OK.”

That plan took shape over the next year. It became clear one morning when he was doing what he always did — reading Scripture and praying at his kitchen table. 

“I was doing my devotions one morning,” Moyer said, “Then I felt the Holy Spirit speaking to me and saying, ‘I want you to go back to Hillsdale and work with the college students.’”

It had been decades since Moyer had lived in Hillsdale. After earning his master’s degree in education administration from Michigan State University in 1973, he spent years in Ohio as a teacher and principal before moving into insurance and financial services to make enough money to put his kids through college. Later, he returned to education — first as a principal at a charter school, then as director of North Carolina’s charter schools — before retiring with Nancy for good at age 70 in North Carolina. 

For Moyer, it only seemed right that his next chapter would circle back to the place where it all began. 

“In 2020, I packed up my car, got in and drove to Hillsdale,” Moyer said. “God called, and I came.”

Today, Moyer lives in a home on Riverdale Street, just minutes from Hillsdale’s campus, a house he says is God’s house. Over the years, Moyer has remodeled the home, and every change has been made with intention: a spacious living room where students gather for Bible studies, extra bedrooms for visiting alumni or students needing a place to stay and a kitchen always stocked with coffee, snacks and ice cream.

Caleb Bigler ’25, who now works for the Admissions Office, grew close with Moyer when he first came to college. 

“I met Jack 5 years ago, during my freshman year when I first started going to Athletes InterVarsity,” Bigler said. “He noticed that I was new and sat by me for the first few weeks I went until I had made some other friends. He was one of the first friends I made at Hillsdale who wasn’t on the cross country team.”

Moyer has made his house a home for many.

“My mission was to be here and to serve the students and their families as much as I could,” Moyer said. “I wanted this to be a house of fellowship. It’s been a big job, but the most wonderful job I’ve ever had.”

Moyer, who attends College Baptist Church, is now a familiar name around Hillsdale College. Coaches, students, and ministry leaders know him as a steady source of wisdom and prayer. More than a hundred students receive his daily email devotions, which contain a scripture verse and message about the passage. Students can be added to his email list by contacting him at jomoyer2@gmail.com.

 “I don’t know the exact number,” Moyer laughed. “It’s over 100 for sure; I’ve got five address books now.”

Senior Olyvia Beckwith noted that Moyer always pays attention to how God works in people’s lives. 

“He’s always telling stories,” Beckwith said. “I think one of the most inspiring things about him is the way that he treasures his memories. He’s always talking about God’s faithfulness and how he has seen it through his life and through the lives of others.”

For Moyer, everything he does is rooted in one thing: 

“It’s love,” Moyer said simply when asked why hospitality matters so much to him. “God’s love is so strong. His love is unfailing, that’s what Scripture tells us. And he’s given me, through grace, the love to do that. I am third — God is one, others are two, and I am third. So I just give God all the glory. I love the students. I care about them. I pray for them. Every day is a blessing.”

Moyer’s life was shaped by a lifetime of service. 

“If God gives you a gift, you’re to use it, not lose it,” Moyer said. “It’s not for me. It’s what I can do for Him. If I can encourage students, and use what I’ve gone through to help others, then that’s what I should be doing.”

Moyer often reflects on how Nancy shared that same heart for mentorship.

 “She loved the same as I do — mentoring young people — and we did it our whole lives,” Moyer said. “She was incredible, and I miss that part of it. But it doesn’t mean you stop living.”

Each morning, Moyer begins his day with Psalm 118:24. “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

“It doesn’t say have a pity party,” Moyer said with a smile. “So that’s what I try to do — and love people. It’s fun. Every day is a blessing.”