Dorothy Weeber

Dorothy Jean Ligtvoet Weeber completed her transition into the presence of her Lord and Saviour, Jesus of Nazareth, on May 28, 2017. She was preceded in death most recently by her husband Robert Allen Weeber of Grand Rapids MI, Asheville NC and Columbia SC; much earlier by her parents, Paulus and Mary Doornbos Ligtvoet of Amsterdam Netherlands and Chicago IL, respectively, and then Kalamazoo; by her brother Marvin P. Ligtvoet, also of Kalamazoo; far too much earlier by young sister Marie Frances Ligtvoet and her great soul-sister Anne Kotiadis Fortosis and more recently by brothers- and sisters-in-law, John and Elsie Piersma Weeber, Ruth Lorraine Weeber Derteen, and Ralph and Mary Louise Weeber Ericksen.

Dorothy grew up as a member of Bethel Baptist Church in Kalamazoo, attended Kalamazoo Central High School and Western Michigan University before transferring to Wheaton College, Wheaton IL to study Bible. In the Wheaton chapter of Foreign Missions Fellowship, Dot met her future husband Bob, of Berean Baptist Church in Grand Rapids. After graduate studies at Columbia Bible College and Wycliffe's Summer Institute of Linguistics, they began language school with the Central American Mission in San Jose, Costa Rica. When their youngest child needed medical treatment, they returned to the US. They then entered more than 40 years of service together at Ben Lippen School in both Asheville NC and Columbia SC. Bob and Dot eventually retired in Columbia, until memory loss and decreasing autonomy forced them to return to Michigan nearer family.

Dot lived her life in untiring service to others, attending to physical, emotional and spiritual needs. She thought outside the box. And forward. She rejected the conventional wisdom of doctors who told her that her daughter would never walk and proved them wrong through immense persistence. She was a community pioneer in composting, organic gardening and preventative nutrition. She hosted at her table a constant stream of visiting missionaries, parents, alumni, or foreign college students hauled back from church and accompanied a series of elderly ladies in the community. She managed a thrift store for many years and organized numerous charity sales, leveraging her management skills.

Dot's presence, with her joyful devotion to her Lord, her unfailing kindness, her generosity and her mischievous sense of humor, will be missed by her sister Janet Ligtvoet McRoberts of Salem OR; by her brother and sister-in-law William F. and Phyllis Fletcher Lightvoet of Kalamazoo; by her 5 children and their families, Judy Weeber Dahl and John Dahl of Arvada CO, John and Juliet Mills Weeber and grandson John Gabriel of Paris France, Joy Weeber of Raleigh NC, Jeanne and Thomas Jones and grand-daughter Alex of Richmond VA and Janice Weeber Steensma, Howard Steensma and grandson Josh all of Hastings MI and grand-daughter Brittany Steensma and her fiancé Chris Campione of Crowne Pointe IN; by her brother- and sister-in-law Floyd and Carol Weeber Riegling of Rockford MI; by her brother-in-law Harvey Derteen of Grand Rapids; by her Ligtvoet, Weeber, McRoberts, Ericksen and Riegling nieces and nephews and have already been missed for several years by her exuberant water-aerobics comrades at the Northwest Family YMCA in Irmo SC and her beloved St Andrews Evangelical Church community in Columbia SC.

A celebration in memory of Dorothy will be held on Sunday, August 6, 2017 at the Algonquin Lake Lodge in Hastings (2403 Old Iroquois Trail) with visitation beginning at 1:30 PM and an informal service to start at 2:30 PM with a lunch to follow. Visit www.lifestorynet.com to share a memory or photo, or sign her guestbook.