Jack DeVries

In a time when people are increasing focused on themselves, when someone who is attentive and compassionate towards the lives of others comes around, it restores hope in the lives they touch. Jack DeVries was a man of a sensitive demeanor that disarmed strangers and made children smile. He was a family man through and through. Jack loved his wife and children with all of his being.

Harwin Jay DeVries, or Jack as he was known, was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan to Harwin and Marilyn (Wolma) DeVries on the 7th day of April, 1954.

Jack's father worked in construction, building houses. As a boy, he would often help his dad on the work site by cleaning up the trash. As he got older, his dad would build the house, Jack would do the interior decorating. His mother stayed at home to take care of not only Jack but also his older brother Bob, and their two younger sisters, Deb and Deann. There was quite an age gap between he and Deann, 16 years, and when he and Deb would often take Deann to the mall, people would ask if they were her parents.

Jack loved music. Singing and vocal music were his favorite all throughout his life, but he also played the trumpet in high school. He attended West Side Christian School and Central Christian High, where he sang in choir and the Madrigals. His favorite singer was Olivia Newton John and the Lettermen and was able to go to many of their concerts. He would sing along to a live recording of the Lettermen with an imaginary microphone and tell his sister, Deann, to be quiet because the audience could hear her.

After graduating from high school in 1972, Jack decided to work with his father and brother building Red Roof Inns across the country. Eventually he began to work as an interior designer at Standale Home Furnishings. During those summers, his mother and Deann would visit his father on his current job site. When they would return home they would find he had rearranged all the furniture.

Back in 1994, he was servicing a call that he had received to remodel a kitchen. He arrived at the house and realized that it was someone that he already knew. Coleen Terpstra had been through a divorce six years earlier and had three beautiful children, Michael, Kelly, and Kyle from her marriage. Jack found out all these things about Coleen as they hit it off through remodeling of her kitchen, and they began to see each other outside of his work. After dating for two years, on a bright sunny February day, they were married at the Fredrick Meijer Gardens on February 3rd, 1996.

On February 1st however, two days before the wedding day, Jack had gone into the doctor's office and was told that he had a cancerous brain tumor, identical to the tumor his brother Bob also suffered from.

The tumor however, did not take the zeal for life out of Jack. He took in Coleen's three kids and treated them as if they were his own. They vacationed at the trailer on Brower Park and would spend all of their summer weekends playing on the river, waterskiing, knee boarding, tubing and performing tricks. In the winter they would travel north to camp and hike in Canada or west to Colorado and Nevada to downhill ski Searchmont and around Lake Placid.

Jack and Coleen wanted to add to their family and decided to give their love and home to three children from Russia. They adopted, Joshua, Dimitri, and Lyosha. When they went to pick the kids up, all of the caregivers were amazed at the way the children clung to Jack and the way that he wasn't afraid to get down and play with them.

Kelly will always remember coming into a room and greeting him saying "Hi, Jack" only to receive his invariable response, "Don't say that in an airport." Kyle remembers sword fighting with him for a half an hour at Russ', even after the food had arrived. And when they'd break their swords, they'd ask the waitress to bring them more. But most of all, they remember Jack reading devotions with them and praying with them, every night before they went to bed.

Jack was a man of faith. He nurtured his relationship with the Lord, and because of that knew how to be attentive and sensitive to his family and listen to their needs and wants, their hopes and fears. As cancer claims more and more lives in this country and around the world we are reminded that our faith and trust most always be placed in the Lord. We must pray for God's grace, that the suffering on Earth is not the last word, and that all shall one day be made well again.

Jack DeVries died on Friday, September 9, 2005 after a life filled nine year battle with brain cancer. He is preceded in death by his brother, Bob, who died 18 months earlier of the same type of tumor that claimed Jack's life. Jack's family includes his wife, Coleen; children, Joshua DeVries, Dimitri DeVries, Lyosha DeVries, Michael (Caitlin) Terpstra, Kelly Terpstra and Josh Evans, Kyle Terpstra, ; parents, Harwin and Marilyn DeVries; sisters, Deb (Jim) Feyen and Deann (Tom) Wright; and sister-in-law, Kathy DeVries. Also surviving are nieces and nephews, Troy, Tim, Traci (Ryder), Tricia, Ben and Matthew; several aunts, uncles, and cousins; mother-in-law, Lola VanderStelt; brother-in-law, Gordon (Linda) VanderStelt; and nephews, Steven, Charles, and Robert.

Friends may visit with Jack's family on Monday, September 12, 2005 from 7 to 9 PM and Tuesday, September 13, 2005 at 11 AM, one hour prior to the service at the Heritage Life Story Funeral Home - Alt & Shawmut Hills Chapel, 2120 Lake Michigan Dr. N.W. The Lifestory Service will be held at 12 PM on Tuesday, September 13, 2005 at the same location. Interment will be in Rosedale Memorial Park. Please visit Jack's personal memory page at www.lifestorynet.com where you can share a memory or lieu of flowers make a contribution to Hospice of Michigan. A special thank you to Hospice of Michigan for all their care and compassion.