George Van den Heuvel

George Van den Heuvel, 86, of Britt passed away on Tuesday, August 1, at Westview Care Center in Britt. 

Mass of Christian Burial for George Van den Heuvel will be held Tuesday, August, 8, 2023, at 2:00 PM at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, 1207 3rdStreet Northeast, Belmond, Iowa with Father Jerry Blake officiating. Scriptural wake service will be held at 12:30 pm. Visitation will begin at 1:00 PM until the time of Mass. 

Graveside Service will be held on Wednesday, August 9, at 10:30, at Ell Township Cemetery in Klemme, Iowa. Military honors will be provided by the Klemme American Legion.

George A. Van den Heuvel the son of John and Francoise (Schwarz) was born on January 9, 1937, in Central Africa on a coffee/tea and eucalyptus plantation in the “Belgian Congo”. On these plantations, his father also ran a machine shop where he repaired neighbor’s cars and ran a welding shop.

At the age of six, George was sent to a Jesuit Catholic boarding school (College Notre Dame de la Victoire, in the Congo) where they spent nine months of the year.  The other three months of the year (Christmas and summer) vacation were spent at the plantation helping their father in the machine shop, driving trucks, riding horses or playing with natives.

He attended Jesuit high school until he graduated in 1956.  Since George’s father always dreamed of starting a “family Industrial Center” in Africa with his two sons.  Since America was known the world over, it was America that George and his brother Raymond were sent, to pursue their engineering studies and the Milwaukee School of Engineering in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  George was admitted on a probation basis because he knew only a few words of English.

In 1960, while George was still attending college, his country of origin (the Belgian Congo) became an independent country and took the name of Zaire.  Chaos followed and George and Raymond were advised to remain in America and become US Citizens.  In 1961, after graduation from college George joined the US Army because he wanted to earn the right of becoming an American citizen.  Six months later, while in the US Army, his dream materialized, and he became a US citizen.

He married his first wife Elizabeth in 1963, while still in the service in Frankfurt, Germany.  Three sons and two daughters were born from this union:  George Jr., Marc, Paul, Marianna and Orissa.  (This union lasted until 1992).  In 1965, he was honorably discharged from active duty with the rank of Chief Warrant Officer but remained in the Army Reserve for an additional 16 years and finally retired from the service as a major.

In 1966, he started his civilian career as a Mechanical Engineer, working with Farm Equipment (Allis Chalmers) in Wisconsin.  In 1976, he was recruited by another farm equipment company (Rome Industries) in Georgia to work as a Test and Evaluation manger.  In 1981, he was hired as “Manager of Engineering” by a manufacturer of forklift attachments (Long Reach Manufacturing Company) in Houston, Texas. In 1990, he moved to Garner, Iowa to accept work as a chief engineer at (Iowa Mold Tooling Company), a manufacturer of Hydraulic Truck Mounted Cranes and Rotary Air Compressors.

It was in Garner, Iowa, while working for Iowa Mold Tooling Company, that he met “the love of his life”, Shirlene.  They married in 1993 and continued working in Garner Iowa.  In 1996 they moved to Michigan City, Indiana, where George had accepted work for the Sullair Corporation, (manufacturer of rotary air compressors) as a “Sullair” subsidiary in Lyon, France.  In 2002, after five years and 5 trips to Europe with Shirlene, George retired to enjoy his and Shirlene’s family in Klemme, Iowa.

After retiring a few months, in 2002, he started working part-time as a bus driver for “Opportunity Village”, serving people with disabilities which gave him great satisfaction. In December of 2015, George retired for good.

In his retirement, he enjoyed fishing and golfing, although he was not good at either one of these activities.  He also enjoyed riding his motorcycle, landscaping around the house, and taking pictures.  He was good in languages and taught French at NIACC one winter.  He also enjoyed visiting his family in Belgium and France.

Preceding him in death is his wife Shirlene, his parents John and Francoise Van den Heuvel, two sons Marc and Paul and daughter Orissa and brother Raymond and a stepson Richard Ulrich and one great step granddaughter.

Survivors include:  One daughter Marianna Fleming of Houston Texas, one daughter-in-law Nina Stolzenberg of Norfield, New Jersey, stepson Wendell (Kim) Ulrich of Klemme, Iowa, stepdaughters Lynetta Ulrich of Mason City, Iowa, Denise (Ron) Haberkamp of Garner, Iowa and Dawn (Jon) Gamerdinger of Garner, Iowa along with grandchildren and great grandchildren in Iowa, Houston, Texas and New Jersey.