Joan DeYoung ’48 Hinkamp

Joan A. Hinkamp passed away in Portland, Ore. on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2019 from pneumonia. She was a treasured wife, mother, nurse and friend.

Joan was born to Dr. Thies and Aletta (Wyngarden) DeYoung on Sept. 7, 1923 in Grand Rapids, and was the oldest of five children. She attended a one-room grade school in Sparta and graduated from Sparta High School.

Like the rest of the family, she grew up helping out in her father’s medical office, which was located in the family home. At Hope College, her first semester included Dec. 7, 1941, which helped her decide to become a nurse. She completed nursing school at Presbyterian Hospital in Chicago and returned to Hope College to finish her bachelor’s degree. She worked as a campus nurse during college and later taught nursing at Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids.

Joan also met her husband Paul E. Hinkamp II at Hope College. They married in 1950 and moved to Columbus, Ohio where she worked in the college health clinic while Paul completed his Ph.D. in chemistry. In 1953 Paul took a job at The Dow Chemical Co. and they moved to Midland, where they raised three children. The family was active in the First United Methodist Church, scouting, and the neighborhood, where she shared childcare responsibilities with neighbors Marge Englund, Eileen Behr and Marilyn Helmreich who became some of her longest and dearest friends.

Later, Joan’s love of nursing drew her back to Midland Hospital (later called Mid-Michigan Medical Center) where she worked part-time for 19 years. She also enjoyed hand knitting and later became an accomplished machine knitter, knitting hundreds of hats, scarves and mittens for needy youth.

Joan and Paul’s love of country and the natural world inspired a lifetime of camping and RV trips to national parks and other sites throughout the country, though Michigan’s Lower and Upper Peninsula remained favorite destinations.After nearly 42 years of marriage, Paul died in 1992. Joan remarried in 1994 to Sam Ketchman and spent winters in Florida until his death in 2000, when she returned to Midland. In 2013 she moved to Portland, Ore., to be near her daughter and son.

Family includes her children, Dr. David Hinkamp (wife, Lourdes Rocha), Janet Hinkamp (husband, the late Russell Cwalinski) and Steven Hinkamp; her stepdaughter, Jean Ann (Ketchman) Scott; siblings, Marcia (DeYoung) Stegenga, the late Dr. Maynard DeYoung, Kenneth DeYoung and the late Gordon Paul DeYoung; grandchildren, Jonathan and Timothy; and a host of extended family members

Return to Current In Memoriam