Haan, Leonard 1910-2001

HAAN, HEMKES, NYMEYER

Posted By: Wilma J. Vande Berg - volunteer (email)
Date: 7/18/2014 at 19:34:20

Sioux Center News of March 7,2001

Leonard Haan, 90, of Sioux Falls, formerly of Hull and Sioux Center, died Thursday, March 1, at the Good Samaritan Village in Sioux Falls. A private family service was at the Oolman Funeral Home in Hull with the Rev. David Dawn officiating. Burial was at Hope Cemetery in Hull.

Haan was born September 20, 1910, at Holland, Michigan, the son of Dr. R. L. and Maggie (Hemkes) Haan. He attended elementary school in Orange City and graduated from Eastern Academy in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1928. He graduated from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, .Michigan, in 1933. He received a master's degree from the University of Iowa in 1941 and another master's degree, in library science, from the University of Denver, Colorado, in 1964. He was teacher and principal of Sioux Center Christian School from 1938 to 1942, teacher of history and English at Western Christian High School from 1942 to 1955, registrar and teacher of English at Dordt College from 1955 to 1957, superintendent at Central Minnesota Christian Schools in Prinsburg from 1957 to 1961 and assistant supervisor of the South Dakota State Library Commission at Pierre from 1961 to 1980.

He married Grace Nymeyer at Hull on October 18, 1937. They made their home in the various communities where he was employed. Later, they retired to Sioux Falls. For most of his life, he was a member of Christian Reformed churches, where he served as deacon and later as elder. Currently, he was a member of Trinity Reformed Church in Sioux Falls.

Survivors include his wife; two daughters and their husbands, Trudy and Irwin Raak of Jasper, Minnesota, and Elizabeth and Lawrence Mitchell of Vermillion, South Dakota; six grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; and a sister, Alida Akker of Byron Center, Michigan. He was preceded in death by two infant grandsons; seven brothers; and a sister.