Van Gorp, Joan "Jo" (Mrs. Perry) 1939-2021

VANGORP, NIBBELINK, KLEIHESSELINK

Posted By: Marjorie Brunsting-Volunteer (email)
Date: 1/4/2022 at 13:57:13

Mrs. Joan “Jo” Van Gorp, wife of Perry Van Gorp, age 82, of Sioux Center, passed away on Tuesday, December 28, 2021, at the Good Samaritan Society in Le Mars.

There will be a memorial service on Friday, December 31, at 2:00pm, at the First Reformed Church in Sioux Center. The Rev. Roger Voskuil will officiate. Interment will be prior to the memorial service at the Memory Gardens Cemetery in Sioux Center. There will be a family prayer service on Friday, at 1:00pm, at the church. Visitation with the family will be on Thursday, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm, at the church. The Oolman Funeral Home in Orange City is in charge of arrangements.

Joan C. was born on November 11, 1939, on a farm northeast of Orange City, the oldest child of Henry W. and Hattie (Nibbelink) Kleinhesselink. She grew up on her parents’ farm and was a student at the Orange City Christian School and graduated from the Western Christian High School in Hull in 1957. She attended Northwestern College in Orange City for one year before transferring to Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education and social work.

She was united in marriage to Perry J. Van Gorp on July 28, 1961, at the First Reformed Church in Orange City. They made their home in Sioux Center, where Jo taught full-time at Kinsey Elementary School in Sioux Center until 1971, when she became a substitute teacher for the Sioux Center Community Schools. She also continued to further her own education, taking classes through the University of South Dakota. In addition to being a wife, mother, teacher, and student, she also helped her husband at his accounting and real estate business in Sioux Center, and was a devoted grandmother, rarely missing her grandchildren’s extracurricular activities.

Mrs. Van Gorp was currently a member of the First Reformed Church in Sioux Center. She had previously been a part of the New Life Reformed Church in Sioux Center, where she was instrumental in starting the church’s Children and Worship Ministry and was ordained in children’s ministry by the West Sioux Classis of the Reformed Church in America. Jo was also a member of the Christian Educators Reformed Church in America and of the Delta Kappa Gamma, a teacher’s honor sorority. She regularly used her gifts as a pianist and organist in worship services and was active in the Northwest Iowa Symphony Orchestra for many years.

Survivors include her husband of more than sixty years, Perry, of Sioux Center; three children, Dr. Barbara Van Gorp, of Iowa City; Karen, and her husband, Darryl Ten Pas, of Sioux Center; and Steven Van Gorp, and his fiancé, Kari Edenholm, of Plattsmouth, Nebraska; three grandchildren, Sabrina Van Gorp, Derek Ten Pas, and Katelyn Ten Pas; four siblings and their spouses, Helen and Peter Pals, of Orange City; Harlan and Diane Kleinhesselink, of Alton; Larry and Patti Kleinhesselink, of Sheldon; and Norma and Kevin Ward, of Iowa City; a brother-in-law and his wife, Donald and Alvina Van Gorp, of Montevideo, Minnesota; a sister-in-law, Esther Bos, of Orange City; a dear friend and former college roommate, Helen Bonzelaar, of Grand Rapids; as well as numerous nieces and nephews.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband’s parents, Edward and Gertrude Van Gorp; and four brothers-in-law, Russell Van Gorp, and his wife, Mildred; Lloyd Van Gorp, and his wife, Hendrene; Howard Van Gorp, and his wife, Frances; and Peter Bos.

Memorials are encouraged and will be given to Samaritan’s Purse.

Source: Oolman Funeral Home online obituary.