Gysbert L. Menninga

Kevin Harnett 

From:zimmermanharnett@att.net

To:Kevin Harnett

Mon, Jul 8 at 10:33 AM

Rest in Peace Dad, Grampy

Gysbert Lee Menninga died peacefully in his sleep on June 30, 2024, a little over a year after the death of his beloved wife, Sylvia.

The seventh of ten children, he was born on a farm outside Otley, Iowa on April 25, 1934. High school sweethearts, Gy and Sylvia married in 1955 while he was studying for his engineering degree, first at Calvin College in Grand Rapids before finishing up at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In 1957, he was drafted into the army and the couple moved to El Paso, TX for two years where their first child, Elizabeth, was born. Following his military service, the little family moved back to Michigan, where Gy studied briefly before starting his first professional job, at Michigan Bell in Detroit. The family, now settled in suburban Detroit, soon included three sons as well. While working for the Bell System, Gy was assigned to work at the prestigious Bell Labs in New Jersey, the R&D center for Bell, taking the family with him before returning to Detroit once the year-long stint was completed.  

In 1969, the family moved to Highland Park in suburban Chicago when Gy accepted a job as an engineer at Cook Electric. Two years later, together with a colleague, he started his own company, CEAC, to sell his own patented surge protectors to telecoms and transportation systems. In the mid-70s, he sold the patent to Joslyn Electronic Systems, where he then worked as a salesman. He finished his career as interim CEO consecutively to two of Joslyn’s subsidiary companies, first in Burlington, VT and then in Boulder, CO, where his mandate was to oversee the companies’ reorganizations.

He retired with Sylvia in Oak Park to be near and help raise grandchildren. Although officially retired, he never slowed down. He started his own fix-it business in his 60s, providing simple repairs and odd jobs at a low cost to a wide range of clients, many of them elderly. He was an active member of First United Church of Oak Park and also volunteered with a wide range of humanitarian and progressive causes, from housing and hunger to LGBTQ rights and prison reform. He served as supervisor for the construction of two Habitat for Humanity houses; volunteered providing reconstruction following Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana; co-coordinated the Crop Hunger Walk together with Sylvia for many years; co-founded and co-facilitated the Oak Park chapter of PFLAG with Sylvia; lobbied for LGBTQ rights in Springfield and protested US paramilitary involvement at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation in Georgia.

He and Sylvia were recognized for their community service with the Ulyssean award from the Senior Citizens’ Center of OPRF, and the Bruce Scott “Courage and Justice” award recognizing LGBTQ activism. His contributions to community, like his parenting, were always accomplished with thoughtful patience and kindness. 

Along with his wife, he was predeceased by his son-in-law Chris Leroux. He is survived by his children: Beth, Bert (Francisco Ballesteros), Nick (Nancy Fong) and Charles; grandchildren: Alizarin, Thalo and Haskell Menninga; Isabelle (Mauss Jones) Leroux-Jones; and Owen Boone. He is also survived by brothers Clarence Menninga and Larry (Mary Jo) Menninga and sister Phyllis (Ray) Klapwyk as well as many nieces and nephews and in-laws and dear friends.

In lieu of flowers, donations should be sent to Proviso Habitat for Humanity at P.O. Box 6544, Broadview IL 60155.

A Memorial Service will be held at 2:00 pm on Saturday, September 7, 2024, at First United Church of Oak Park, 848 Lake Street, Oak Park, IL 60301.

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