Anderson, Joan (Mrs. Doug) 1932-2023

ANDERSON, TERPSTRA, JONKER

Posted By: Marjorie Brunsting-Volunteer (email)
Date: 2/8/2023 at 12:24:38

Mrs. Joan T. Anderson, age 90, of Orange City, walked on to God on Thursday, January 12, 2023, while at the Orange City Area Health System.

There will be a memorial service on Monday, January 16, at 2:30pm, at the First Reformed Church in Orange City with the Rev. Mark Haverdink officiating. A private family interment will take place prior to the memorial service at the West Lawn Cemetery in Orange City.

Joan Terpstra Anderson was born June 19, 1932, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She was the middle child of five born to Ben and Lucy (Jonker) Terpstra. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan in 1955, looking toward teaching as a career. When the opportunity arose in 1958, she trained for and joined Mission Mwanga, a teacher training mission school in what was then the Belgian Congo. With independence, the Congo soon fractured into civil war, which sent Joan back to the United States (with the help of the UN) and ended her missionary work in 1961. Having learned the French language for her work in the Congo, she then lived a year in France and went on to earn a Master’s Degree in French in 1969 from the University of Michigan. She briefly taught French in the Richmond, California public schools. A promotion from volunteer to manager of Logos Bookstore, a Christian bookstore on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California, led her out of teaching in the early 1970s.

While managing the bookstore and interacting with all sorts of people who came into the store, she decided to hire an assistant manager named Doug Anderson. In 1976, Joan and Doug married. Despite their unusual age difference (Joan, who always looked 10-15 years younger than her chronological age, was in fact nineteen years older than Doug), the marriage flourished for more than 46 years. For a time, Joan was vice moderator of the Board of Deacons of the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley (PCUSA). While Doug worked on his Ph.D. at the Graduate Theological Union, Joan kept the two of them financially solvent primarily by being the Registrar of New College Berkeley. For several years Joan was the non-faculty “face” to students at this Christian graduate school for lay people.

In 1989, a job for Doug at Northwestern College brought Joan to Orange City. She soon found a new career as a journalist. Over many years, she was a correspondent at various times for the Sioux County Capital-Democrat, the N’West Iowa Review, and the Sioux City Journal. She was thorough in her research and crystal clear in her writing. When she wasn’t working on a newspaper story, she was for many years involved in volunteering at Hands Around the World in Orange City. Gifted in listening and drawn to Christian spirituality, she gained formal training as a spiritual director through the program at Christos Center for Spiritual Formation in Lino Lakes, Minnesota.

Following Christ steadfastly, wondering at beauty (natural and human made), and quietly engaging with people and places with curiosity and attentiveness is who Joan was as an individual. She also came to love attending symphony orchestra concerts, art and history museums, and theatre productions with Doug.

Joan is survived by her husband Doug, of Orange City; and a brother and sister-in-law, the Rev. Gene and Jacquie Terpstra, of Monte Vista Groves Homes in Pasadena, California.

Memorial gifts would be welcome either at Northwestern College in Orange City (designated for new books at the DeWitt Library) or Zestos in Alton.

Source: Oolman Funeral Home online obituary.