SCHAKEL, Karen Gertrude 1942-2009

SCHAKEL, SNUTTJER, JANSEN

Posted By: County Coordinator (email)
Date: 2/2/2010 at 08:46:50

Karen Schakel was born August 27, 1942 in George, Iowa, to Rev. Frank and Mrs. Grace (Jansen) Snuttjer, and she was raised mostly in Little Rock, Iowa. She had three sisters (Lavina, Lois, and Mary) and one brother (David).

Karen’s sister Lavina remembers of their growing up years: “Karen was Dad’s right-hand help in the office, getting bulletins ready from the typing to running them off on a mimeograph. I remember how every morning Mom braided her hair in French braids and how beautiful she looked! She got many compliments on her beautiful hair! Being the middle child, she often wasn't noticed; however, I have a clear memory about how she loved to read.”

Her brother David remembers: “Karen was my sister (7 years older), and we shared many wonderful memories. As children, we would walk west of town on weekends to a quiet, wooded place next to the Little Rock River and enjoy the peace and quiet. She would point out the beauty of the sunset, the flowers, and the rolling river. We would play badminton for hours. She taught me much about life and how to enjoy it—lessons that I appreciate more every year.”

Karen’s sister Lois remembers: “Karen was my next younger sister, so we ended up sleeping in the same bed many a night. Being of almost opposite personalities, there were some ‘sisterly differences’ that could surface at a moment’s notice. Karen was very particular and very routine in her daily rituals in using facial products. I wanted to hit the bed and sleep NOW. Many a night I waited for her to come to bed, so all would be dark and quiet. Talking about quiet, Karen was a more studious, quiet kind of gal who loved to read. Maybe because she read so much, she had a vision deficit quite unbeknown to her or our parents. However, at a teacher’s bidding, she was taken to an ophthalmologist, and indeed she did need glasses. Her surprise at being able to see the individual leaves on the trees, and a pattern in the carpet, was an awesome moment for Karen and a surprise to my parents. Karen’s quietness spoke of her deepness of character and thoughtful reflections before making decisions—a wiser woman than I.”

Karen attended Central College in Pella, Iowa, where she met Peter early in her freshman year (his sophomore year). Peter remembers the first time he saw her, in First Reformed Church, across the room in the college students’ Sunday School class. He immediately knew he wanted to know her better. They dated off and on the next three years and became engaged the summer before her senior year.

During her college years she had a summer job in the Black Hills, South Dakota, as a short-order cook. Her brother David remembers: “Once, we were chased by a buffalo when we went exploring in Custer State Game Park in the Black Hills when she worked there. She went on a walk with me exploring the hills behind the Lodge. We found a small ‘cliff’ and imagined that it was once a lover’s leap for Indians who might have inhabited the area, and then went down to a creek bed where we came upon the buffalo. We ran and crossed the creek. Somehow, the fact that we had crossed over water made us feel safe—like a buffalo couldn’t figure out how to get across the creek.”

She graduated from Central College in May 1964; she and Peter were married in Little Rock on July 3, 1964. They lived in Madison, Wisconsin, from August 1964 through July 1968, while Peter worked on his Ph.D. at University of Wisconsin. Karen worked from 1964 till 1967 as Coordinator of the Faculty Advising Service in the Office of the Dean of the College of Letters and Science at the University. Their first child, Jennifer, was born in Madison on January 6, 1968.

After a year in Lincoln, Nebraska, the family moved to Holland in August 1969, when Peter got a position in the English Department at Hope College, and Holland has been their home base ever since. Their second child, Jonathan, was born in Holland on October 29, 1971.

In 1976 the family went to Oxford, England, for a seven-month sabbatical. Karen enjoyed everyday life in England and adapting to English ways of living. She learned to cope with daily trips to the baker, butcher, and green grocer shops, walking and pulling a shopping carrier. She also had to deal with doing laundry in a tiny washing machine that hooked up to the kitchen sink. Cooking could also be a challenge, since weights and measures in England were different from in the U.S. She also enjoyed hosting many visitors and going on weekend daytrips around the English midlands and longer excursions during the school holidays.

Karen was always a quick and practical thinker. While the family was in England, one day Jonathan jumped over a space heater setting in the entrance to his room, knocking it over and setting the carpet on fire, with him inside the room. Karen immediately ran over, grabbed a throw rug, and smothered the fire.

The family spent 1979-80 in Charlottesville, Virginia, where Peter was a member of a National Endowment for the Humanities seminar. They returned to Oxford, for a second sabbatical in 1983. Karen and Peter loved England and returned for several more visits there, as well as in Ireland and on the Continent. They had good friends in England for many years.

Karen was a good seamstress, and for many years she made clothes for herself and for Jennifer. She made both of Jennifer’s prom dresses.

Karen stayed home with Jennifer and Jonathan while they were young. She was co-organizer of the infants and toddlers nursery at Third Reformed Church for several years and she became volunteer librarian there. Always a fast learner, she taught herself the Dewey Decimal system so she could organize the collection in a more professional way. She returned to work when Jonathan started school. She was the trade book buyer at Hope-Geneva Bookstore for over eight years. Her real passion was for Christian education, however, and she became the Director of Christian Education, and later the office administrator as well, at Third Church. She was certified as an Associate in Ministry by the Reformed Church in America in 1997. She subsequently joined the Van Raalte Institute at Hope College and worked for twelve years there as editorial assistant and office manager.

Karen was very fond of her grandchildren, all boys—Jonathan, Thomas, Michael, and Paul. She took care of Jonathan, Thomas, and Michael after school for several years, getting to know them very well. One of her greatest joys was to visit Paul (and also, of course, his parents, Jonathan and Megan) in Charlottesville, Virginia. Jonathan and Megan remember how she loved to help and “how cared for we felt whenever we were at their house or they visited us. Karen would always cook way more than she usually did, often planning the menus weeks in advance and asking us about new recipes she had found. She always did our laundry—even at our house! When they visited at spring break she would help to wash and iron all of our curtains—and of course wash the dishes three times a day. This was all on top of playing with Paul whenever possible.”

Jonathan and Megan also remember a funny story about Karen’s first trip to Charlottesville, when they were there for a job interview: “She came to Charlottesville to watch Paul when we had our audition and interview. We got adjoining hotel rooms so that Paul could be put to bed and she could go in the next room with the baby monitor on. Well, she had to set up the monitor because we had to dash off to the church. She set up the two parts in the wrong rooms, so that while she sat with her half of the monitor and talked with Peter on the phone, their conversation was coming through the monitor in Paul’s room. She said when we noticed the mix-up: ‘I was amazed at how quiet he was.’

Well, of course she couldn’t hear any of the sounds he was making!”

Family was always important to Karen. Her sister Lavina remembers: “Karen was a most caring person. She wanted to be at all family functions if possible, giving support and being there to cheer one on. Being available and helpful to our mother was a priority, and she was there often at a personal cost. She even included Mom on their family vacations. She wanted peace in the family and always was the one to converse and talk about differences in opinion. She gave wise counsel and was a wonderful listener, giving good feedback. Karen’s positive attitude to others and on life was one that endeared her to many. Maybe it was this that made her a favorite with children. She loved them for who they were and interacted with them in a loving and interested way. Her strong work ethic as well as her strong faith made her a good co-worker. Karen loved the finer things in life whether it was music, food, books, or special items in their home, and she delighted in them all. She loved life in all its colors and wanted to share it with others.”

Karen had a great love of reading, all her life. The way she played with dolls when she was young was to line them up on the sofa next to her while she read a book to herself. Her sister Lois remembers: “I think of her as usually having her nose in a book . . . any book.” That love of books led her to be an English major in college. In recent years she loved mystery stories—but she continued to the end of her life to read books on Christian education and to discuss them in a reading group that met at Western Theological Seminary.

Karen was very fond of gardening, and she especially loved summer flowers. She and Peter spent a lot of time converting their vegetable garden into a lovely flower garden, and she enjoyed adding plants and rearranging them so that they would appear to greater advantage. She loved to have bouquets of garden flowers in the house, especially on the dining room table.

A good friend summed up her traits well: a loving heart, a warm smile, a caring spirit, a moderating voice, a woman of God. She died December 9, 2009, after a brief illness. She will be greatly missed.

Visitation: Thursday, December 17, 2-4 and 7-9 at Dykstra Life Story Funeral Homes, Mulder Chapel, 188 West 32nd Street, Holland. Funeral: Friday, December 18, 11:00, at All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Saugatuck, Michigan. Arrangements by the Dykstra Life Story Funeral Homes, Holland, Michigan.

Memorial gifts may be given to the All Saints’ Episcopal Church music fund or to the Hope College scholarship that is being established in her memory.

(Dykstra Funeral Home, Holland, Michigan)