Robert Rozema, Raymond Kerr and their wives initiated the idea of a Grand Rapids rock club at a meeting in October 1958. Later that month a larger group met and selected the following officers: Robert Rozema, president; Richard Rose, vice president; Jane Kerr, secretary; Henry Slater, treasurer; and Mary Jane Dockeray, guide. Also present at this second meeting was C.N. Woolf, the president of the Kalamazoo Geological and Mineralogical Society, who was able to serve as an adviser to the new Grand Rapids Mineral Society.

The first general meeting was held November 12, 1958 at the Grand Rapids Public Museum. By the end of the first year, the membership grew to 175. The club was incorporated January 27, 1959 and joined the Midwest Federation of Mineralogical and Geological Societies.

The Society continued to meet monthly at the public museum, participated in fund raising activities, presented speakers, held rock shows, led field trips and beginning in February 1959, produced a newsletter called the “Glacial Drifter”.

At their December 1993 meeting, the society voted to give any of their remaining funds towards a scholarship at Grand Rapids Community College. They also negotiated with Gordon Olson to have their papers donated to GRPL.