March 4, 1933 – February 8, 2025
Nancy Van Domelen passed quietly from this earthly realm on Saturday, February 8, 2025, with her family at her bedside. She led a full life of 92 years. Born Nancy Vogelsang on March 4, 1933, she spent her youth in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
After graduating as a proud Spartan and a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority from Michigan State University she began a career as a high school history teacher. Shortly thereafter, despite some initial misgivings (he was after all a proud Wolverine “Michigan Man”), Nancy started dating Peter Van Domelen III a strapping young up-and-coming lawyer. Family lore has it she “smoked” him with a wicked backhand serve in a ping pong match on their first date, and he was smitten. She and Pete married on September 28, 1957, and raised their four children, Peter IV, Julie, Daniel, and Jane in East Grand Rapids. During the school year, Nancy was very involved in the local educational system. She would then pack up her clan and move to their beloved cottage in Holland on the shores of Lake Michigan for the summer. In 1973, Nancy and Pete, always antsy for new experiences, embarked on an amazing adventure and decided to move their family to Aspen, Colorado. This was the first step in a sojourn that would last their entire life, with pauses in the Roaring Fork Valley, Moab, Utah, Crestone, Longmont, Pinewood Springs, Lyons, and Boulder, Colorado.
While raising four rambunctious children Nancy somehow found time to continue her commitment to education and children as the Director of the Wildwood Environmental Pre-School in Aspen, she headed up the USDA funded state-wide Wildwood Food Program and served as an elected official on the Aspen School Board. After 20 wonderful years in Aspen, Pete and Nancy moved to Moab, Utah and spent the early years of their retirement exploring the desert and canyons, playing golf and bridge, and enjoying the Moab community. Nancy was the author of a trilogy of spiritual books. “Dreaming a New World”, “The Higher Dimensions: Our Next Home” and “A Spark of the Divine” were writings that would lead Nancy to many magical encounters and relationships. Nancy always believed that there was more to life than what we experience in the physical realm and her open-minded quest to understand the deeper meanings of existence was something that defined her. After a stint in Crestone, where she finished her books, Pete and Nancy relocated to Boulder County (Longmont, Pinewood Springs, Lyons, Boulder). Nancy was a famously devoted grandmother, always seen at sporting events, recitals, dance competitions, and school plays for her eight grandchildren.
She was pre-deceased by her husband Pete, and her son Daniel, and is survived by her sisters Sarah O’Brien and Mary Kay Beerbohm, her son Peter IV and his wife Robin Van Domelen, daughter Julie Van Domelen and her husband Joseph Lekarczyk, and daughter Jane Reagan and her husband Mike, as well as eight grandchildren (Peter V, Colter, and Travis Van Domelen, Jake, Kailey, Sara, and Conner Reagan, and Maya Lekarczyk) and five great-grandchildren (James, Oliver, Lily, Hayes, and Wells Van Domelen). The family is planning a memorial service on Sunday, May 25th at the Prince of Peace Chapel in Aspen.
What a lovely tribute to a lovely woman! We are holding you all in our hearts. Love to you all