David K. Schreur's Page
I am David K. Schreur. I was born on
March 26, 1953, in Kalamazoo,
MI. I attended Kalamazoo Public
Schools, graduating from Loy
Norrix High School with honors in 1971. I was a
member of the Cross Country and Track teams and of the Varsity Club, as well as
the 1000 Mile Club.
I attended Kalamazoo College from fall 1971 through fall
1973 as a Heyl scholar, majoring in chemistry and minoring in mathematics. I transferred to Western Michigan University in 1974 with plans
to be a high school teacher. I attended WMU off and on, eventually leaving the
college of secondary education and studying regular biology with a laboratory
emphasis until my graduation Summa Cum Laude in April of 1995. I minored in
English with a creative writing emphasis.
In my life I've had an odd assortment
of jobs. I've made and delivered pizzas, worked at Burger King, done pots and
pans and been an inventory clerk for Saga Food Service. When I got married to
Lee Ann Johnson of Courtland, Ohio,
I became a doorman for the State Theater in Kalamazoo. I was a laboratory technician at a
plating plant for a short time. I spent some time as a night security guard for
Charles Services ( we called ourselves Charlie Cops) checking trucks into and
out of a chemical plant. For twelve years I was a washer repairman on coin
operated routes in Western Michigan, Northern Indiana, and Northwestern
Ohio (yes- I was a lonely Maytag repairman, with several other
brands thrown in). Recently I have been a necropsy/developmental
toxicology research associate supervising a necropsy laboratory in the drug
safety field. My job consisted of supervising technicians who test drugs to see
if they are safe for pregnant women to take or if they cause birth defects. I still work in the same field, but now
I specialize in fetal pathology and male fertility.
When I'm not working I have a wide
range of interests. I've spent some time in community theater with the
Kalamazoo Civic Players in Kalamazoo,
Michigan, and more time in
medieval recreation studies. I also spend some time writing poetry and short stories. In
the past few years I’ve sailed a small sloop on the local lakes and
ridden a small motorcycle on the back roads. I’ve also spent a lot of time
making music with a small basement band we called Fuzzy Duck, or in an acoustic
set called Sittin’ Ducks. I serve as a vocalist and mandolin
player and do occasional harmonica backup.
Besides these things I am an ordained minister of the Universal Life
Church, something that goes back to my
old college days in the Vietnam
era. If you like you could read about what I believe.
I have four children. The three oldest
are girls and the youngest is a boy. My oldest girl, Courtney, graduated from Kalamazoo Central High School,
is now married, and has given me two granddaughters. The next, Hillary, married
recently and lives with her husband, Tom.
The youngest daughter, Marina now lives with me in Pennsylvania
and Karl, lives with my ex-wife, Lee Ann, in Michigan.
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My own family was quite large, with
eight children in all; myself, three brothers and four sisters. I am the
youngest. The family included my Father, Cornelius George Schreur, now
deceased, my mother, Wilma Gertrude Schreur (actually Wilhelmina), deceased,
and the children Julian, deceased, Joan, Sylvia, Richard, Nilah,
Ione, Eric, and me.
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My grandfather Stephen Schreur came
from Bentheim, Germany, in 1881 when he was eight years old and
lived at first near Oakland,
MI, with his father, Gert, his mother, Stine, and his brothers John, Henry,
George, and Berend.
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This is a picture of Gert Schreur's family from Bentheim, and what a dour looking bunch they are. The
back row includes, from left to right, John, Henry, George, and Stephen (my
grandfather). The front row includes Berend, Stina, and Gert. In Germany the name was sometimes spelled Schroer, but was spelled Schreur when they came to America.
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He married Anna VanZomeren
(a family name later changed to Somers by some relatives) and they became
missionaries in the Southwestern United States
but had to give it up because the climate was bad for Stephen's health. They
moved to Freemont, MI, where my father was born, and opened a
business that failed. Later he ran a small grocery store in Kalamazoo which burned down one day, ending
that business. Anna died shortly afterward of heart failure, on August 3, 1938.
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This picture is of my father's
parents, Stephen and Anna Schreur, probably around the time of their wedding.
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Anna VanZomeren
was born in Portage, MI, the oldest daughter in a family of
eight; Anna, William, Dick, Abe, Lee, Nellie, Henrietta, and Clara. Her father,
Cornelius VanZomeren had come to America as a two year old child with her
Grandparents, Dirk VanZomeren and Anna Verhagen, who had left Vianen in
the province of South
Holland in the Netherlands
in 1870.
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This picture is of my mother's
parents, Frederick and Lena DeYoung, probably near
their 50th wedding anniversary
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My other grandfather Frederick DeJongh (later changed to DeYoung
to seem less German in the war) came from the Netherlands as a young man with the
DeBok family and at first worked as a baker's
assistant in Grand Haven. He had worked for Mr. DeBok
in the Netherlands
where the DeBok bakery was across the street from his
house. His brother Stoffel (Christoffel)
had joined the Dutch army but he and his other brother Hank didn't want to and
were afraid they'd be drafted so when Mr. DeBok
decided to move to America
he and Hank (Hendrik) asked if they could go along.
He later became a celery farmer and married Janna Soffelina
(Lena) Ringelberg.
His father, Hendrik DeJongh,
died young when my grandfather was five years old and his mother, Wilhelmina
Van Ballegooyen, remained in "the old
country", where she died at a ripe old age.
Lena Ringelberg
was born in Grand Haven, MI, where her family had settled after coming from Kerkwerve in the Netherlands. Her father, Henrich Ringelberg, had taken
ship from the port of Brouwershaven in the province of Zeeland,
the Netherlands,
along with his wife, Gertruida Fondse
in 1870. They had a small child that was lost on the voyage to America (their
daughter Jacomina, born July 28, 1870, died August 3,
1870). Of their fourteen children, eleven survived to adulthood; John, Jacominia (Mini), Pietronella (Nella), Anna, Nicholas (Nick), Johanna (Josi),
Martena, Hendrik (Hank),
Janna Stoffelina (Lena), Adrian, and Martin
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This is Lena Ringelberg's
family. In the back row, from left to right, are John, Lena
(my grandmother), Anna, Nella, and Hank. In the
middle row are Mini, Hendrik, Adrian, Martina, and Josi.
The front row includes Martin, Gertruida, and
Nicholas.
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My father was a chemist at a plating
plant and operated the water purification system. He sat for a while on the
Michigan Water Resources Commission. His real passion was for Ham Radio where
he was known as W8PDP (or as he said it on the air,
“W-8-Peter-Dog-Peter). My
mother grew up on the celery farm and was a teacher in a one room schoolhouse before
getting married. She spent some time as an appliance salesperson for George's
Appliance until she came home one day to find that my brothers had had a mud
fight through the house. She went back to school to finish her Bachelor's
degree when I was in school and then went back to teaching sixth grade in the Comstock Middle School. The two of them did some travel in later
life, to Germany and the Netherlands, and also did volunteer work in Mexico and Peru.
I can be reached by e-mail at: baronfum@verizon.net.
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