Henk K. Wichmann, 77, went to eternal life peacefully while holding his daughter's hand at the Colchester McClure Miller Respite House on April 10th 2019.
He was born April 17, 1941 to Pieter Heinrich Wichmann and Johanna De Haan in 's-Herogenbosch, a city in Noord-Brabant,The Netherlands. Soon after he was born his mother died. At this time during WWll his father was a forced laborer in Germany. He managed to escape and flee to IJmuiden, Noord-Holland to bury his wife. Henk and his younger brother Joop were then raised by his Aunt Miel in IJmuiden the first few years of his life. Aunt Miel lived into her 90's and she and Henk always remained close thoughout life.
After WWll, Henk's father met and married Truus Robregt and they had six children. The family moved to Utrecht where both Henk and Joop attended the 'Hogere Zeevaartschool', the Navigation Teaching University, where they were trained to be Marine Mechanical Engineers. For many years Henk worked with the KNSM, a Dutch maritime company and Wijsmuller, a Dutch tug boat company and traveled worldwide. He spent much time in Japan and Indonesia supervising their tug boats being built. In the late 80's he was skiing in Austria when he received a telephone call from Wijsmuller informing him, his next assignment was on the Dutch Caribbean Island of Sint Eustatius. It was there that he met his wife, Mary Ann, and their daughter Maxim (Pie) was born. The family moved to Vermont in May of 1995 where Henk worked in the automobile business and later on with Citizen's and Peoples banks. Henk had strong opinions, a quick wit and was always generous with his time for others. He will be missed by all those he knew.
Henk is survived by his former wife, Mary Ann, daughter Maxim Rheinfels, brothers Herman, Harry, and Ferdinand and sisters Trudy, Tineke, Mirjam, their families, mother-in-law Beverly LeBlanc and sister-in-law Wandee LeBlanc. He was predeceased by his father, Pieter Heinrich, mother Johanna, step mother Truus, brother Joop and father-in-law Donald R. LeBlanc.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at St. Francis Xavier Church in Winooski, burial will be Wednesday, April 17th at St. Francis Xavier Cemetery at 1:30 PM and the memorial Mass will be on Thursday, May 9th at 8:00 AM at St. Francis Xavier Church in Winooski, VT.
In lieu of flowers please make any contributions in Henk's memory to St. Francis Xavier Church Winooski VT
To share a memory or send a condolence gift, please visit the Official Obituary of Henk K Wichmann hosted by LaVigne Funeral Home.
Event information can be found on the Official Obituary of Henk K Wichmann.