Tineke Vroman

1921 - 2015

Tineke "Tina" Vroman, born Georgine Marie Sanders in Indonesia, on March 4, 1921, passed the morning of Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2015, with her loving and devoted caregivers by her side. Memorials: Donations may be made in her memory to Heifer International, www.heifer.org. Tineke attended medical school in Utrecht, the Netherlands, when she was 17, the only female Dutch-Indonesian student in her class, and met Leo Vroman, a biology graduate student. They soon became engaged, but the war forced their separation in May 1940. They reunited on Sept. 9, 1947, in New York City and married the next day. They lived in the New York area where Tineke worked alongside Leo in the research lab. She was also an active community volunteer, and obtained a Ph.D. in medical anthropology from The New School when she was in her early 50s. She designed custom therapies for aphasia patients until she and Leo retired to Fort Worth in 1997. She also wrote poetry in Dutch which was published in the Netherlands. Tineke was preceded in death by her beloved Leo in 2014. Survivors: Daughters, Geri Vroman Griffin (David) and Peggy Vroman Gracy (Bob); four grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.