Linda VerMeer ’65 Van Dam
Linda VerMeer ’65 Van Dam passed away in Portland, Oregon, on December 4, 2016, after battling a rare debilitating muscular disease for many years. She was 73.
Linda was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on November 11, 1943, to Henry and Leona Peelen Vermeer. Her family moved to the village of Forest Grove, Michigan, when she was 4 years old.
Fortuitously, the farm they moved to was located across the street from the Van Dam family farm.
Edwin and Linda began their courtship in their early 20s and very soon thereafter they were engaged.
They married on August 6, 1965. There were not many secrets that needed to be uncovered after a lifetime of friendship, and their bond of love grew durable and deep. In the early years of their marriage they lived in Pennsylvania and New York before, in 1976, settling in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where they taught and lived at the Cranbrook Kingswood Schools.
Linda brought light to many first- and thirdgraders over the years at Brookside School, before retiring in 1999. She and Ed spent summers in Holland, Michigan, and then set up a retirement life there in Edgewood Beach.
Linda loved cooking, hosting parties, traveling, collecting antiques, decorating house, and especially spending time with family. In 2014, they relocated from Holland to Portland, Oregon, to spend a maximum amount of time being grandparents.
Linda is survived by husband, Edwin ’63; daughters, Elizabeth and Jane and her spouse, Russell Howison; and grandchildren, Malcolm and Edwin; her sister, Barbara Vermeer ’62 Myaard and spouse John Myaard; and Edwin’s siblings, and their spouses Sandra Van Dam Anderson, Robert and Nancy Zwyghuizen Van Dam, Clark and Roze Zwyghuizen Van Dam, Timothy Van Dam and Ronald Wagner; as well as her many beloved extended family members and friends who deeply miss her.
Linda was predeceased by her brother, Dale Vermeer.