Kathleen "Kay" Van der Veer

Kathleen "Kay" Ann (Trembath) Van der Veer, 93, passed away peacefully with her family beside her on Monday, October 21, 2024. She was born to Presto and Evangeline Trembath on January 25, 1931, in Negaunee, Michigan, the 6th of 7 children, and graduated from Negaunee High School in 1949. Her family survived the Depression on their dairy farm, where she was one of many hands around the house. Though she lost both her parents in her mid-to-late teens, she was able to depend on her siblings, and stayed connected to her upper peninsula roots throughout her life.

In the early 1950s, she moved to the Detroit area to live with her sister Laura, and worked her way through Wayne State University, where she received a Bachelor of Education, and began teaching in the Dearborn, MI, school system. It was then that she met John R. "Jack" Van der Veer, a young doctor and Navy veteran, in residence at Harper Hospital in Detroit. They married in 1956, and after a short stay in Ann Arbor, where Jack completed a residency in Psychiatry, they relocated to the Toledo area, where Jack set up practice, and together, they raised three children.

During her years in Toledo, Kay volunteered in multiple roles at both Pilgrim United Church of Christ, and later, at Sylvania UCC. She regularly drove for mobile meals, volunteered weekly at a food pantry, campaigned for school levies, served as President of the Women's Auxiliary to the Academy of Medicine, and pursued a master's degree and reading specialist certification at the University of Toledo. In the 1970s, she accepted a part-time reading assistant position at Arbor Hills Junior High, and continued to teach for Sylvania Schools and supervise student teachers until her retirement in 1998, as a full-time Special Education teacher at Sylvania Northview High School. Since retirement, she served as a caretaker for both her husband, and then, sister, Laura; all the while enjoying her bridge group, continued volunteering, membership in PEO, and being a grandmother.

Kay and Jack had many hobbies that they loved and enjoyed together. They supported the arts, and rarely missed a Toledo Symphony performance at the Peristyle. They enjoyed skiing in the winter, and boating in the summer, as members of North Cape Yacht Club, and later Toledo Yacht Club. After Jack passed away in 2004, Kay kept up an adventurous lifestyle, with daily walking in her Sleepy Hollow neighborhood, attending fitness camp at Storer Camps, and doing a Mackinac Bridge Walk in her mid-70s. She had a lifetime passion for reading, participated in several book clubs and cultivated a love of books with her children and grandchildren. In recent years, she was an active resident of the Otterbein Woodlands community.

She is survived by her three children, Gretchen (Steven Beckham) of McLean, VA, Eric (Linda Goudreau) of Clifton, VA, and Michael (Susan) of Toledo, Ohio; five grandchildren, Grace Van Der Veer (Peter) Noone, Holden Van der Veer, Kathleen "Kacey" Beckham, Lillie Beckham, and Cordelia Van der Veer; one great-grandchild, Evangeline Noone; and many nieces, nephews, and great-nieces and nephews.

She is preceded in death by her parents; husband of 47 years, John R. Van der Veer, MD; her beloved brothers and sisters, Glenn and Jim Trembath, Laura Dunstan, Janet Hoffman, Marilyn Wicklund, and Ada Veale; nephews, Jerry Hoffman and Robert Wicklund; and niece Paula Wicklund Wilson.

A memorial service will be held on Sunday, November 10, at Sylvania United Church of Christ, 7240 Erie Street, Sylvania, Ohio 43560, at 2:30 p.m., with a reception at the church to follow.

Anyone wishing to make a donation, in lieu of flowers, may do so to YMCA Storer Camps, Toledo Symphony Orchestra/TAPA, or the League of Women Voters. Online condolences to

www.reebfuneralhome.com