Joan (Hoogterp) Loveland, 85, passed away on Tuesday, February 27, at Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital, under Hospice care and in the presence of her three daughters and other family members.
Joan was born in Wyoming Park, Michigan, the first of 13 children born to Dorothy and Peter Hoogterp. In her high school years, she attended Marywood Academy in Grand Rapids, and The Madona House school in Combermere, Ontario, before graduating from Kent City High School as valedictorian in 1956.
She married Karl Loveland, Sr., the summer after graduation. The young couple lived and worked on farms across western and central Michigan, and had a son and three daughters together. Following a divorce, Joan lived in Grand Rapids, where she raised her children and worked for many years as an office manager at Grand Rapids Spring and Wire Company.
During that time, she fell in love with a piece of property in the Isabella County community of Blanchard. With her children grown, she moved north to what she always called “The Land.” There, she designed an energy-efficient home and happily settled in, with an amazing community of friends and neighbors, and a new job in the office of Olson Tire in nearby Mt. Pleasant.
Joan believed in serving – perhaps something she had learned from her parents and from the religious community in Combermere. She led a 4H group while her children were young, and volunteered at Switchboard Crisis hotline while in Grand Rapids. In Blanchard, she was a master gardener, volunteering at events and working to maintain the Victim’s Garden in Mt. Pleasant. She helped to bring recycling to Blanchard and was faithfully there to help people the first Saturday of the month for many years. She served on the park board in Blanchard and was very active in the AARP/IRS tax program, helping people to file their taxes at no cost.
She lived her values every day. Joan had an independent spirit and always amazed her children and grandchildren with what she knew and what she could do. She was an incredible role model of how one can live life. She looked small but was a mighty force.
Joan was preceded in death by her parents; son and daughter-in-law, Karl and Anne Loveland; and by her siblings, Ruth Ashley, Terri Foley, Frank Hoogterp, Tom Hoogterp, Mary Hoogterp, and Barb Rowe. She is survived by her daughters, Chris Wysocki (Gary Blok), Jean (Jim) Wysocki, Judy Loveland (John Jaquays); siblings, Mart (Barb) Hoogterp, Ed (Millie) Hoogterp, Angie Hoogterp (Bobbie Rosencrans), Sara (Mike) Yob, Sue (Doug) Shank and Dan (Helena) Hoogterp. She also has 7 grandchildren, Mike Wysocki, Megan (Aric) Davis, Sam Loveland, Nick Loveland (Ariel Arnold), Holly Curry (Andrew Conlon), Dan (Nikki) Curry, Jerry (Susan) Loveland; and 8 great grandchildren, Braelyn Likes, Neko Loveland, Maddie Davis, Ashly Hancock (Frank Plodizk II), Kendra Loveland, Addison Loveland, Oliver Curry, Olivia Curry and Aiden Jaquays.
The above is excerpted from a full obituary at obits.mlive.com.
