- Date Of Birth: January 10, 1938
- Date Of Death: July 1, 2022
- State: Iowa
Daniel Renier Vander Voort was born January 10, 1938, at home, on his parents’ farm, seven miles
northwest of Pella, Iowa. The third of four children born to William E. Vander Voort and Wilmina
Adriana Dieleman Vander Voort. Legend has it that “Dan” weighed 13 pounds at birth. Years later he
couldn’t recall ever seeing a scale in their home, nor did a scale seem likely to be among the instruments
that the doctor would have brought to the delivery. Rather, Dan speculated, that upon his arrival, when
passed to his father, William hefted him a few times, thought a bit…heavier than a broiler chicken, ‘bout
the same as half a pail of milk, “I’d say about 13 pounds.”
As a boy on the farm, Dan cleaned chicken houses, fed hogs and cattle, milked cows, and harnessed
horses. But it wasn’t all work. Young Dan hatched some duck eggs a neighbor had given him under one
of their broody banty hens. He enjoyed recalling how frustrated the hen became the first time her baby
ducks found a puddle on the yard. He and older brother Bill explored the hills, woods, bottom lands and nearby Skunk River as brothers, best friends and at times, co-conspirators. They trapped gophers, muskrats, possums, and raccoons. On one frosty morning, they discovered a skunk caught in one of their traps. Lacking a rifle, Dan and Bill had no choice but to dispatch of the skunk with a blunt instrument, probably the biggest, heaviest stick two grade schoolboys could take turns swinging. Shortly thereafter, Dan and Bill walked to Bunker Hill Country School located right across the road from their farm. Even in the days when most farm folks bathed once a week, the skunk smell on the Vander Voort boys was more than their teacher would tolerate and they were sent home not to return until the stench was remedied. Soon after, their father William, perhaps prompted by Wilmina, purchased the boys a Model 37 Winchester single-shot bolt-action rifle. They could now quickly and humanely deal with what they’d caught in their traps but also avoid another school suspension. In the evenings after supper, the Vander Voort family would sit around the coal stove in their front room, reading, occasionally stopping to discuss with one another what they’d read. It was here that Dan learned to appreciate hearing a good story and telling one.
Dan got an early start on his education. He’d been following brother Bill to school, only to be sent home. He was too young. At some point, apparently, the teacher and his parents agreed, he may as well just stay and get things underway. As a result, years later, he graduated from Pella Christian High School in 1955 at the age of just 17. His then girlfriend, Janice Beyer of Prairie City, was in the class behind him.
Unlike his two older siblings, Dan chose not to go to college, but to get straight to work. He began washing cars at Ulrich Motors in Pella and quickly worked himself into a job as a mechanic. He loved the cars of that era. The trend each year was toward ever larger, more powerful V8 engines and that was just fine with Dan. He was working in Pella. Janice, his fiancée, was in nursing school at Iowa Lutheran in Des Moines. Between the two lay 40 miles of Highway 163. At the time, the speed limit was “reasonable and proper.
and with friends. Annually, Dan and some close friends would fish for walleyes and pike at Dave’s Wilderness Camp on Lake Wabaskang in Ontario, Canada.
Dan and Jan were blessed with two children, Laurie Rene and Jeffrey Daniel. Theirs was an active young family. The four regularly rode dirt bikes and camped together with friends. Increasingly, as Jeff got older, Dan and he did more and more hunting together. It was something they both enjoyed very much. Hunting coons in the creeks and river bottoms at night, pheasants in the fall fields.
Dan’s lifelong love of animals and agriculture eventually called him back to the country. Jeff had acquired a Brown Swiss heifer and she served as the nucleus of what would become a herd of registered Brown Swiss cows. The early animal husbandry skills Dan had displayed as a young boy were still there. He read the Hoard’s Dairyman and Brown Swiss Bulletin from cover to cover each month. He was progressive and conscientious, and their herd received numerous awards at the county and state levels for milk production. Years later, his children grown and gone, Dan dispersed his Brown Swiss herd and turned his enthusiasm from Brown Swiss dairy cows to Angus beef cows.
As empty-nesters, Dan worked a variety of jobs in town, but mostly, he and Jan enjoyed taking care of the cows, gardening, watching the many varieties of birds lured to their feeders, listening to Bobwhite quail and Whippoorwills call from the hedgerows, and watching the deer move through their property.
One thing that never failed to disrupt the tranquility and serenity of this setting was the appearance of any raccoon. For some reason, in Dan’s eyes, the raccoon seemed to embody all that was wrong in this fallen world, and it was continuous open season.
In retirement, Dan and Jan wintered in South Texas several years. He ventured to South Dakota to hunt geese and pheasants with his son and grandsons. And enjoyed deer and turkey hunting with friends and family on his farm near Attica. But largely, their entertainment revolved around the activities of their six grandchildren.
Dan loved to take care of animals and to take care of things, fixing fence, tinkering on anything, and just browsing the aisles at Theisen’s Farm Store in Pella. But he dearly loved his wife, children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, neighbors, and friends.
Psalm 19 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” Dan’s faith was shaped by the beauty he saw and experienced in the natural world. Though Dan didn’t talk about it openly, it was his faith, “The” Faith, that informed his worldview; inspired him to generosity and compassion and defined his sense of right and wrong. Dan’s comfort, in life and ultimately, in death, was that he belonged to the Lord.
Daniel was preceded in death by his loving wife of 64 years, Janice Lee Beyer Vander Voort. His parents, William and Wilmina Vander Voort of Otley. His father and mother-in- law, Clarence and Clara Beyer of Prairie City. Two sisters, Gerdena (Vander Voort) Woodson of Burlington, Christina (Vander Voort) Broyles of Dallas, Texas. His brother, William Vander Voort of Houston, Texas. Three brothers-in-law, Joseph Broyles of Dallas, Texas; Wayne Woodson of Burlington; and Alvin Keuning of Monroe.
Those left to mourn his passing are, two children, Laurie (Vander Voort) Haynes and husband Mike Haynes of Pella; and son Jeffrey Vander Voort and wife Christi (Koopman) Vander Voort, also of Pella. A sister-in-law, Lana (Beyer) Keuning of Monroe; sister and brother-in-law Jane (Beyer) Victor and Mike Victor of Adel. A sister-in-law Carol Vander Voort of Houston, Texas. Six grandchildren, Ashley Nicole (Gritters) Allers and husband Matthew David Allers of Webster City; Brooke Ann Gritters of Pella; Jeffrey Matthew Vander Voort and wife Brooke Catherine (Fessler) Vander Voort of Pella; Wyatt Daniel Vander Voort and wife Angela Lynn (Hartford) Vander Voort of Woodland, California; Faith Christine (Vander
