Donna Mae Van Beek

Donna Mae Van Beek
December 17, 2020
San Luis Obispo, California - Donna Mae Van Beek was raised in Green Bay Wisconsin in the 1930's and 40's by Joseph and Muriel Tilkens, and her loving Granma Bunker. A Devout Catholic, she attended Parochial schools in Green Bay and actually dated her future Husband(Richard Van Beek) briefly even though he went to East High which was a Public School. A somewhat spirited soul, she left Green Bay after High School and moved to Michigan. She was a flight attendant(stewardess back then), on non-scheduled DC-3's and flew all around the Midwest. She moved briefly to Miami and Denver before settling in San Francisco in the mid 50's. In SF, she flew for Flying Tigers and TWA and her main route was SFO to Tokyo, with stops in Hawaii and Midway Island to refuel. She reunited with Richard Van Beek in SF and was married in 1959.
Her son, David, came in 1960 and then her daughter, Dawn, in 1962. The Van Beek's relocated to San Luis Obispo in 1961 and bought their first house(and only) on Stanford Drive in 1964. It took her a while to adjust from "The City" to SLO town but after several years she became a San Luis Local(and proud of it). She happily raised both her children on Stanford Drive and David graduated from the University of Santa Clara and Dawn graduated from Cal Poly SLO. Her husband, Richard, unexpectedly passed away at 40 in 1972. Donna had just graduated from Cal Poly and got her teaching credential in 1972.
Donna started her 3rd career as a teacher at CL Smith Elementary in Laguna Lake in 1972 as a 4th grade teacher. She taught for more than 22 years and taught 3rd, 4th, and 5th at different times during her career. She was always known as "Ms. DVB" and you always knew it was her when she zipped in late to school in her MGB or her Porsche 911(her pride and joy) with her customized "MS DVB" license plates. In addition to teaching, she was able to watch her Grandson(Tyler) grow up since he spent lots of time at Nonna's house after school, which was her favorite part of the day.
After retirement, Donna hung out with her group of friends, volunteered at the Mission; the Animal Shelter and the Golf Course picking up range balls. Her Love of animals was one of the most important parts of her life and you could always count on her to be at a local Animal Rights protest. Donna was able to move up to Oakland 3 years ago and spent 2 years watching her 2 granddaughters grow up 3 blocks away. Donna spent the last year of her life up in Bend where she was visited by her Daughter Dawn daily(although via zoom or a window during Covid). She passed away from Natural Causes on December 17, 2020. She had a wonderful life of 88 years and was preceded in death by her husband, Dick, and her 2 beloved brothers, Carl and Paul. She is survived by her son David and daughter Dawn, and her Sister June Minor and brother, David Tilkens. We will be celebrating her life at the Old Mission in San Luis Obispo on August 26, 2021 at 10AM. Reception to follow. Please join us. No flowers, if you really feel like donating, her favorite charities were ASPCA or Peta. Reception to follow the ceremony, please join us. Questions, david@vanbeekassociates.com.
The mass will be live streamed on the Mission SLO website on 8/26 at 10AM PST. Go to Funerals on the bottom and click on funerals on that day.