Henry Veldhuizen, 96, of Pella, died Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020. Graveside service was held Saturday, Nov. 28, at 2 p.m. at Sully Cemetery. Memorials have been designated for Sully First Reformed Church and Lynnville-Sully FFA.
Henry John Veldhuizen, the first of four children born to Jacob H. and Marie (Van Zee) Veldhuizen, entered this world on Feb. 5, 1924. The family lived “in the big square house located on the only four-cornered intersection between Lynnville and Taintor” until Henry was 10 years old when they purchased a farm one mile south of Taintor. He attended Ludwick School #7 of the Lynn Grove Township Consolidated District of Jasper County, a two-room rural school south of Taintor, and graduated from New Sharon High School in 1941. He had already begun farming with his father before graduation, and when the United States entered World War II, he received a farm deferment. Feb. 2, 1949, he met Alma Jane Rozendaal at the skating rink in Sully. Feb. 2, 1950, Henry and Alma were united in marriage at her family home of Fred and Corlena (Van Hemert) Rozendaal. They made their home on the farm Henry’s grandfather, Henry John, purchased in 1888 three miles south of Lynnville. They were blessed with six children: Carolyn, James, Gelene, twins John and Jane, and Alesia.
Henry made profession of faith in Peoria Christian Reformed Church on Sept. 9, 1945, moving his membership to Sully First Reformed Church in 1950. He was a faithful member, active over time in Men’s Brotherhood from its inception to its demise, instructor of a boys’ junior high Sunday School class, and attending services until March 2020.
As a service to the community, he served as secretary-treasurer of the Lynn Grove School District for the last three years of its existence ending with the 1955-56 school year, and the Lynnville-Sully Community School District was established. He also served for some years on the Jasper County Farm Bureau Board.
Henry’s legacy of land stewardship began in 1949 when he laid the contour lines for the original farm. He was a lifelong learner, a historian, and a story-teller.
In 1991, Henry and Alma moved to 205 5th Street in Sully, living in their home until 2016 when they moved to Pella Manor, later transitioning to The Cottages in 2018.
Henry was preceded in death by his wife Alma Jane in January 2019, his infant daughter Jane, his son-in-law Norman Klein, his brother and wife Leonard and Henrietta Veldhuizen, his sisters and their husbands Gladys and Marvin Vander Molen and Geraldine and Arnold Dykhuis, and his sister-in-law and her husband Luella and Jerry Berglund.
Those left to cherish Henry’s memory are his five children: Carolyn (Ken) Wassenaar, James (Kimberly Andeway) Veldhuizen, Gelene Evans, John (Laura) Veldhuizen, and Alesia Veldhuizen; 11 grandchildren; 14 great-grandchildren;
He is also survived by a brother-in-law and his wife Clarence and Linda Rozendaal and many nieces and nephews.
