Bertha Joanne Vreeman

Dr. Bertha (“Betty”) Joanne Vreeman was born on March 15, 1949 in Sioux Center, Iowa. She was the second of 10 siblings in the Vreeman family. Across her family’s years in Iowa, California, and Michigan, Betty was the sibling who wrote family newsletters and plays, roping her 9 siblings into performances that would foreshadow her happy years studying and teaching Theater Arts and English. A lifelong learner, Dr. Vreeman’s educational journey included graduating from Holland Christian High School, Dordt College, and Central Michigan University (where she earned a Masters Degree). She taught English and Drama at Kalamazoo Christian High School and then Theater Arts at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. Her dedication to serve and spread the love of Christ worldwide then led her to work for the Christian Reformed Church mission board, supporting the training of secondary school teachers in Katsina-Ala, Benue State, Nigeria. When she returned from Nigeria, Dr. Vreeman taught at Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania, before she decided to pursue her PhD in Theater Arts from the University of Texas at Austin. After getting her doctoral degree and also teaching Theater Arts and English classes at U.T. Austin, Dr. Vreeman taught Theater Arts and English at the University of New Hampshire.

Dr. Vreeman also used her writing skills and passion to obtain grant-funding for initiatives that included job training and housing assistance in Muskegon County and technology installation and training in Lakeland Cooperative Libraries across Muskegon County. Following a stroke that left her wheelchair- dependent, she used her talents and abilities to serve others in the State of Michigan, appointed by the Governor as the Commissioner to the LTCSS [Long Term Care Supports and Services] Advisory Commission. Along with this appointment, Betty was elected as Co-Chairperson of Michigan’s Region 8 MI Choice Waiver Program Consumer Quality Control Committee. She was honored for her leadership and service with the Michigan Alliance for Health “Everyday Hero” award in 2012.

Betty was creative, brilliant, and had a lifelong habit of being surrounded by the stacks and stacks of books she devoured. She loved sparkly, dangling clip-on earrings, petting animals, wearing pink and purple, picking blueberries and wearing costumes. Betty was the master of floating, able to float on her back with her toes pointing out of the water while reading a book, even in Lake Michigan’s biggest waves. She honed this skill during her childhood and teenage years spent at the Christian Reformed Conference Grounds on Lake Michigan, where her father, Dr. Gerrit Vreeman, was the summer director. Betty was an excellent storyteller, always injecting everyday tales with drama and humor and heroic adventures. Betty especially captured her audience with what calamity might happen next. She had an incredible sense of hearing, a tendency towards clumsiness, and a strange ability to make watches stop functioning. Betty loved animals throughout her life, from horses and dogs to the spiders she would name. For years, her dog Starr (named after Ringo Starr) was always by her side, often found next to her on car trips across the country.

While many called her sister, she was also known as “Aunt Betty” to many, including her 31 nieces and nephews. Aunt Betty was the aunt who gave the best presents to her young nieces and nephews, picking out the coolest toy or science kit or activity book that you never knew you wanted and packing surprises to open each day of a long road trip. Several of her nieces and nephews remember how she forever shaped their childhoods with surprise tickets to fly solo to visit her across the country all by themselves, enjoying weeks dressing up in costumes from her massive theater collection, creating short movies with her early video equipment, riding horses, and indulging in the great privilege of getting to pick whatever kind of cereal you wanted to eat. Aunt Betty passed on her love of costumes, stories, drama, animals, and travel to many of her nieces and nephews, whether by example or genetics. She taught her doctor nieces to never let people forget to call you “Dr. Vreeman” when your title should be used.

In 1990, Betty moved to Michigan to live with her mother, Wilhelmina (Nickie) de Vries Vreeman, who had developed multiple myeloma. For several years, Betty’s primary occupation was as a caregiver and companion to her mother, handling the household management and her mother’s medical needs. For this gift of service, her family will always be grateful.

In Betty’s words, upon receiving her “Everyday Hero” award in 2012: “My mother was my first Everyday Hero; she taught me to believe and live this truth: ‘This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it!’ I see each day as an opportunity to make life an adventure by enjoying new “we-ness!” My goal is to encourage/help everyone to understand that “we” means to always see, interact with, and treat others as “equal but different.” Each of us has the same value, no matter the variations in our age, race, culture, economic or education or job standings, or physical and/or emotional or intellectual conditions or disadvantages. Then, we all can and will live in true health!”

Dr. Betty Vreeman was preceded in death by her parents, Gary Vreeman and Nickie Vreeman, as well as her siblings Jane Vreeman and Joel Vreeman. She leaves behind 7 living siblings and their spouses, Willie (Vreeman) and Dave Ahrenholz, Jerry and Cori Vreeman, Tom and Jacki Vreeman, Mary (Vreeman) and Alan Huizinga, Steve and Jean Vreeman, Fred and Janet Vreeman, sister-in-law Billie Vreeman, and Joan (Vreeman) and Jim Rhodes, and many nieces, nephews, grand-nieces, and grand-nephews.

Contributions in memory of Betty Vreeman may be sent to: Lion Outreach International or Christian Reformed Conference Grounds