Leland Stanley Van Koten

Leland Stanley Van Koten, "Lee", of Catonsville, MD, passed away January 8, 2022, one week before his seventy-third birthday. He was born in Champaign, IL, and was a graduate of Illinois State University and the University of Maryland School of Law. Lee is survived by Sidney Turner, his wife of forty-six years. In accordance with his wishes, his body was donated to the Maryland Anatomy Board. Due to Covid, no memorial service is planned at this time.

After moving to Baltimore, Lee was employed by the Social Security Administration for seven years. Even before graduating from law school, he began his legal career by clerking for The Honorable Guy Ciccone (Circuit Court for Howard County) in Ellicott City, MD. The next eleven years were spent in private practice (Wright and Parks and Parks, Hanson, and Ditch) in Baltimore and Towson, followed by a brief stint in the Office of the Maryland Attorney General. He retired after fifteen years in the U.S. Department of Justice. One of his most meaningful experiences there was going to New York City after nine-eleven to take applications for benefits from survivors. To his co-workers, Lee was "a steady, thoughtful colleague, and an able litigator, a man blessed with great intelligence and perhaps greater doses of good judgment and good cheer."

Following retirement, Lee continued to pursue a wide variety of interests, traveled nationally and internationally, and was active in his church. Especially rewarding to Lee were the twice weekly nights spent volunteering for the Baltimore International Seafarers' Center. Generally, this consisted of providing transportation to crews of the ships that bring cargo from around the world to the port of Baltimore. But there were often opportunities to assist the seafarers in other more personal ways. For example, Lee went out of his way to help seafarers meet with family members who are living here in the U.S. Once he made a special trip to China Town in Washington, D.C. to buy an authentic mah jong set for a crew.

Donations in his memory may be made to Catonsville Presbyterian Church, Catonsville, MD 21228, 410-747-6180 and the Baltimore International Seafarers' Center, 1430 Wallace St., Baltimore, MD 21230, 410-685-1240.