Helen D. Bovenkerk, 87
Helen D. Bovenkerk passed away on Wednesday, December 30, 2015, in the Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, Pennsylvania, at the age of 87.
Mrs. Bovenkerk was born on January 4, 1928, in Kearny, New Jersey. She and her first husband, William P. Cloyes, settled in Westfield, New Jersey, in 1954, where she became a member of the Presbyterian Church in Westfield and sang in the church choir for fifty years. After raising four children, Mrs. Bovenkerk became the church's Office Manager and Accountant in 1970, a position that she held for nine years.
In 1980, Mrs. Bovenkerk became the business manager for the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, a position that she held until her retirement in 1994.
In 1976, Mrs. Bovenkerk married the Rev. Dr. Henry G. Bovenkerk, who for seven years served as a pastor at the Westfield Presbyterian Church, following his career as a missionary to Japan and as a leading executive in international religious institutions such as the Committee on World Literacy and Christian Literature in Asia. The Bovenkerks made several trips to Asia and Europe during their fourteen-year marriage. Rev. Bovenkerk passed away in 1990.
Surviving Helen Bovenkerk are her daughters Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi of Ossining, NY, and Gail Coles of Emmaus, PA; two sons, John Cloyes of Princeton Junction, NJ, and Steven Cloyes of Londonderry, VT; two stepsons, Warren Bovenkerk of Ann Arbor, MI, and Paul Bovenkerk of Cameron Park, CA; two stepdaughters, Ruth Davidson of Greenwich, CT, and Adele Hoh of York, PA; two sisters, Carol Appleby of Hope, ME, and Ruth Hancock of Doylestown, PA; and six grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held in the chapel at the Presbyterian Church in Westfield on Tuesday, January 5 at 11:00 a.m., followed by the burial of her ashes in a plot next to her late husband's in the Revolutionary War Cemetery on the church grounds. In lieu of flowers, donations in Mrs. Bovenkerk's memory may be sent to the National Down Syndrome Society, 666 Broadway, 8th flr., New York, NY 10012.
Arrangements by the Gray Funeral Home, Westfield. You may go to grayfuneralhomes.com for on line condolences.