Amy Elizabeth Van Loben Sels

VAN LOBEN SELS, Amy Elizabeth - Born May 17, 1911, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Died August 16, 2005. Survived by daughters, Louis Bunse of Newport, OR, Dorothy Malutta of Aptos, CA and Sally Malast of Needham, MA; and six grandchildren. Amy van Loben Sels died this week at the age of 94. She had been a resident of the Meadows in Los Gatos for the past ten years. Amy, the eldest child of William and Minnie Sutherland, was raised in a home where her inquiring and creative mind was greatly encouraged. In 1933 she graduated from McGill University with a Bachelor of Arts degree, concurrent with earning a high school teaching diploma from Mac Donald College. Her first job was teaching at Stanstead College, followed by a year of teaching at the School for Crippled Children in Montreal. In the summer of 1936 she attended a religious studies conference at Minnesing in the Laurentian. There she met her future husband, Maurits van Loben Sels of Sacramento, CA. They were married the following year. They moved around the northwestern part of the United States with the Army for several years until they bought a home in Menlo Park where they settled and raised three daughters. In addition to being a homemaker, Amy was a painter, a writer and forever an educator. She began her love of painting when she was in high school, capturing nature in detailed watercolors. During the first years of her marriage she and her husband would find interesting subjects, each painting their own interpretations. She later said, "I could have disciplined myself to be a really good painter, but it was very difficult to have watercolors out with little children running around!" In 1964, however, she and her husband picked up their brushes again, and painted their way through Europe for three months. Later, inspired by her keen interest in Jungian psychology, she worked on dream images in mixed media. When Amy moved to Los Gatos in 1995 she began painting again. She had her first art show at age 90 when the Meadows celebrated her talent by exhibiting a collection of her paintings. Amy combined her experience in education and her great interest in people by volunteering at the Veteran's Hospital in Menlo Park in the early 60's. She then began volunteering in the International Studies "English in Action Program" at Stanford University in the mid 60's. For the next two decades she taught English to more than 30 foreign graduate students. She related to each student with a sensitivity and perceptiveness that allowed both student and teacher to be equally enriched. Amy enjoyed entertaining her students and their families in her home. She also enjoyed organizing excursions with her students and taking them to visit important Bay Area landmarks and museums which greatly enhance their American cultural experience. Over the years Amy wrote episodes of her life experiences and descriptions of places, objects and dreams that were important to her. Her gift of observation, memory and attention to detail, so evident in her painting and dialogue, were also natural in her written expression. In the last few years, Amy's deafness became profound. Communications, always so important to her, was now done only through writing. She however, maintained her wise interior discipline, strong determination, sense of humor, and her resourcefulness in finding ways to occupy her mind. She wrote that she was "not afraid to die because those who come after would then be afraid to live." Amy will long be fondly remembered and missed by her acquaintances, friends, and family. The family will have a memorial gathering at a later date.