James Morren

James Henry Morren was born at home during the long, cold winter of December 16, 1936, to Henry John and Henrietta Morren in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was the middle child of six children. His father, Henry, worked at Calvin College as an assistant engineer, groundskeeper, custodian, and in general helped ensure that the College facilities ran smoothly. James learned early at the side of his father how to maintain and repair all things mechanical. He recalled crawling into the College boilers to clear out the soot at a very young age.

At the age of seven he took on the responsibility of a paper route, battling dogs, bullies lying in wait, and the occasional deadbeat customer. The reward at the end of each route was the promise of a sweet treat purchased out of his earnings at the local bakery. Along with the paper route, he began working weekends at the neighborhood businesses: cleaning windows, arranging displays, repairing door and window screens, sharpening skates, and other miscellaneous jobs.

At Baxter Christian School, he made friends which lasted throughout his life. His mechanical interests were satisfied in constructing an amateur radio set in the classroom, while his artistic outlet was cut short when his attempts at a mixed-medium collage melting crayons on the classroom radiator were interpreted as defiance.

The early death of James’s father at the age of 13 was a formative experience. It drove home the lifelong conviction that how one treated others was supremely important. Their church, neighborhood, and extended family banded together to support the young widow and her six children in many ways. In their help, James saw the faithfulness of God at work.

At 19, James and his two friends, Bob and Les, signed up for service with the Navy. They were assigned to the Seabees, the U.S. Naval Construction Battalions (“CBs”). As James liked to say, they were the forces who would greet the Marines when they landed on the beaches. With the Seabees, he learned the commercial construction trade, building naval bases, bridges, and airfields. He became popular with his fellow servicemen when he built a much-needed set of stairs over a high fence that allowed the men to get to and from the mess hall in record time. Along with his formal training in the construction trade, the innocent young man from Grand Rapids quickly received an education in just how varied the wider world could be. He was stationed up and down the Eastern Seaboard with service in San Salvador, Bermuda, and Newfoundland.

Upon discharge from the Navy, he returned to Grand Rapids and considered himself fortunate to begin employment with Johnson Construction Company, a relationship which continued for more than 50 years to their mutual benefit. Within a short period of time, his abilities and skills on the job site were soon noticed. He was instrumental in overseeing the construction of numerous local landmarks: LaGrave CRC, Westminster Presbyterian Church, numerous buildings at Calvin College, Steelcase, hospitals, the previous site of the Grand Rapids Art Museum, and the list goes on. His ability to invent a particular tool for a specific problem on the job site became his specialty. The construction workshop gave him a place to fully expand his rich engineering talents.

Having found a job, the young man’s fancy turned toward love. His younger sister, Wilma, introduced James to her cute friend from Calvin, Mary Versluis, a farm girl from the West Side. Mary asked James to a New Years’ Eve party, and their courtship took off. They enjoyed drives, picnics, and water-skiing, and soon James asked Mary to be his wife. On July 27, 1962, James and Mary were married at Walker CRC. After a honeymoon traveling about the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, they set up house on Ivanrest in Grandville. As a wedding present, Mary’s parents gave them a parcel of land on the edge of the farm in Walker and James began construction of their future home. In late May 1963, their first little girl, Francene Lynne, was born. James worked long and hard on building a sturdy house for the growing family, the home where he lived until a few weeks before he passed away. Other children followed, Henry James, William Llad, Joan Marie, and Jane Elizabeth.

The family thrived in their new home with the kids able to explore the orchards, farm fields, and wild areas surrounding the house. All the children enjoyed work on the farm with their many Versluis cousins. James had plenty of room where he set up a workshop to pursue his many projects, from a rowboat to an outdoor wood-burning furnace to cut back on heating bills, to miscellaneous welding jobs on farm implements for his brothers-in-law.

On September 2, 1977, the family was blessed with the arrival of two new members, Glen Richard, and Mary Ann. “The twins” became the focal point, the older children helping with the many daily chores and watching out for each other. Everyone looked forward to the Saturday afternoon “buggy rides”, piling into the car and exploring the back roads to Hardy Dam, Yankee Springs, and Norton Shores, ending, as all hoped, with a surprise visit to Fricano’s Pizza in Grand Haven or a tasty burger grilled on the green Coleman stove at a roadside park. Taking drives with Dad around the city of Grand Rapids was always informative. At every corner, he would fill in the now vacant lots with detailed stories that made the buildings spring up anew and become a vibrant, bustling neighborhood once more. He seemed to have a map of the city imprinted in his mind’s eye. Sundays were set aside for worship, reflection, and weekly get-togethers at the house of James’s mother in Hudsonville with the Morren family, sisters, brothers, and cousins. There they often enjoyed a light luncheon with the essential tea and Grandma’s wonderful cake.

In the fall of 2000, James and Mary suddenly faced a terrible reality. Mary was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. After treatment and remission of the cancer for not quite a year, Mary passed away on May 14, 2002. Mary’s death affected the family deeply. James had retired from Johnson Construction just a few months earlier, but he returned to work after her death, finding purpose and fulfillment in building things and solving worksite problems.

During this very difficult time, James’s faith provided him strength and comfort. The congregation at Walker became an ever more important part of his life. He served as elder of the church for many years, teaching catechism classes, counseling members, and contributing to the life of the congregation in ways large and small. He was a faithful member of the Men’s Bible Study group, studying the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation and delving deep into Reformed theology.

As time went on, the children of James and Mary grew older and moved away, but Dad was still needed by them. Mary Ann remembers a time when she and Glen were driving to Grand Rapids on the morning of Thanksgiving Day. The car’s brakes went out and they managed to park the car at a rest stop. Two hours later, there was Dad. He drove them home, where all enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. The next day he drove them back to the broken-down vehicle. Crawling underneath, he fixed the issue, and they were able to drive the car back to Detroit. Dad, the hero, was in his mid-seventies and still solving mechanical problems.

James did not limit himself to only work and church. He explored and became involved in an expanding group of friends and interests, jazz nights in the park, dominoes and card games, or enjoying what different restaurants had to offer. Friendships were even more important, and he loved heading out with Joel Pipe to a favorite fishing haunt for pike and perch or “mushrooming” in Joel’s old Bronco. His attention to detail served him well in his almost daily bread-making, where he became an expert in all types of loaves, from rye to French sourdough. He created special loaf cans for baking Boston brown bread and went through 25-pound bags of flour on a regular basis.

The children’s families expanded, and he loved sharing pictures and the stories that accompanied them from his time in the Seabees, hunting and fishing trips, and there were always views of construction sites. He enjoyed trips to Alaska, railway trips through Texas and New Mexico, visits to Florida where he fished and flew kites off the pier, drives to Wisconsin to check in on his sons and their farms. He made friends with seatmates in airplanes, sharing car rides from Chicago when plane flights were canceled. He treated people as important and worthy of respect. His stories echoed his conviction that God both provided and cared for His children, and James believed and rested in those promises to the end. His life expressed above all, his faith in God. It underlay everything he did. When working he always tried to do a job as well as possible, because he drew parallels between buildings being straight and true, and the truth that was evident in the Bible.

James H. Morren, aged 87 of Grand Rapids, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, June 11, 2024. James was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the winter of 1936 to the late Henry and Henrietta Morren. Along with his parents, he is preceded in death by his wife of 40 years, Mary E. Versluis as well as by his brother Elden Morren and Son-in-Law Timothy Lewis. James is survived by his children; Francene Lewis, Henry (Lisa Fishman) Morren, William (Patricia Laskowski) Morren, Joan (Daniel) Dykstra, Jane (David) Sugar, Mary Ann (Matthew Lewis) Morren, Glen (Stephany Sowards) Morren; his brothers and sisters; Mary Van Der Wiele, Wilma (Cornelius) Bykerk, Don (Lois) Morren, Norma (Harry) Vriend, eleven grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews. James proudly served with the Seabees in the United States Navy. He enjoyed a long and successful career at Johnson Construction in the Grand Rapids area. James was a loving and dedicated husband, father, grandfather, and friend. Friends are invited to visit with his family from 2-4 PM on Saturday, June 15, 2024, at Heritage Life Story Funeral Home – Alt Shawmut Chapel. His funeral service will be held at 11:00 AM on Monday, June 17, 2024, at Walker United Reformed Church, (1941 Randall Ave. NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49534), with visitation prior beginning at 10:00 AM. James will be laid to rest next to Mary at Rosedale Memorial Park.