Wendell Noteboom

On August 19, 2024, Wendell Noteboom, age 79, passed away, in his home in Clovis, California, surrounded by family.

Wendell was born to Gerrit and Cora Streelman Noteboom on October 31, 1944, at home on a farm near Corsica, South Dakota. He was the youngest of a family of seven children: four sisters and two brothers. His father died when Wendell was only eight and Wendell started working on the farm doing the adult work of running tractors, plows, cultivators, and windrowers. He grew up without luxuries like indoor plumbing but loved horses and machinery. He once took the motor off a mower to turn his bicycle into a motorcycle. Family legend has it that his mother bought one of the first TVs in the county to keep her "wild" son off the "mean" streets of Harrison, South Dakota.

Wendell underplayed his brains, often saying he got through school only because his teachers included his mother and two older sisters; but in fact, he had a master's degree and was a lifelong reader and a curious, compassionate person. He read a large variety of books including titles such as One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant and was reading Killers of the Flower Moon when he died.

In 1968, Wendell married Rosemarie O'Connor. They first alighted in Detroit, Michigan before settling in Des Moines, Iowa. They had two daughters; Erin in 1972 and Wendy born in 1974 and died in 2005. Wendell and Rosemarie divorced amicably in 1990. In 1993, Wendell married Judy McMillen in Lincoln, Nebraska and they were married for 31 years until the end of Wendell's life. He was a marvelous father to Erin and Wendy and was extremely proud of their writing and art successes. He enjoyed becoming a father figure to Judy's 4 sons and later a grandfather to the mixed clan's next generation.

Wendell was a speech therapist by training and spent a professional lifetime helping disabled people first as a speech pathologist, then as a vocational counsellor, and then as a disability examiner for the Social Security Administration. He coached his kids' softball teams, was once the School Board President in Urbandale, Iowa, performed in community theater, collected woodworking tools and sometimes used them, and enjoyed sailing. He loved to go on long walks, often with the family dog, and was rarely seen without a hat.

He once noted "I have not made revolutionary discoveries, written the Great American Novel, or advanced the causes of peace and justice. I have sought to be a good Christian man, husband and father: that is important and enough."

After retiring in 2011, Wendell and Judy moved to Fresno, California. As if to prove himself wrong about not advancing peace and justice, he volunteered at the library, for Hospice, for the Circle of Support and Accountability, which supports offenders on parole, and helped to establish a local group of Compassionate Friends, a support organization for parents who are grieving the loss of a child. He joined the North Fresno Mennonite Church, and was a member of their choir, and the Mennonite Men's Choir and enjoyed camping in the Sierras and on the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

Wendell was born with a congenital heart defect, Epstein abnormality, which was diagnosed when he was 12, that doctors said would end his life before he was twenty. All his life, new medical advances kept extending his life expectancy by 10 years here, 20 there. He outlived four pacemakers. Only in the last few years of his life did a lifetime of strong medications and overworked systems catch up with him. He died of multiple organ failure.

"I don't know how I ended up here," he wrote of his retirement home overlooking Quail Lake. "I never imagined a rose garden and sitting by the water. But I am grateful." We were all grateful to have him for his miraculous extra time.

Wendell was preceded in death by his daughter Wendy Noteboom Ewell, his parents, his sisters Doris Markus, Viola Vandertuin, and Helen Pheifer, his brother Stanley Noteboom, and their infant brother LeRoy. He is survived by his daughter Erin Noteboom Bow and family (James, Wayfinder and Eleanor), his wife Judy and her sons and families, Joe (Deana, Myles and Elisha), Jeff (Jane), Jerry (Nancy, Nico, and Alex), and John (Rebecca, Allison, and Milana and his sister Clarice (Bob) DeVries.

Wendell's Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, October 12, 2024, at the North Fresno Mennonite Church at 5724 North Fresno Street at 10:30 a.m. Memorials may be made to FACE (Fresno Area Community Service) or SART (Social Action Response Team, or Community Ministries of North Fresno Church.