Bruce H. Kuipers

Beloved dad and husband Bruce H. Kuipers went home to be with his Lord and Savior on Sunday, January 3, 2010. He died of natural causes while hunting bobcat in wild country near St. Helen, Michigan. In his motel room in St. Helen, his three sons found his Bible and his Bible lesson book sitting where he'd left them after breakfast that morning. He was reading the Parable of the Sower from Matthew 13, about spreading the word of God to those who will receive it: "Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop - a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. He who has ears, let him hear." Bruce was a devoted member of Calvary Bible Church in Kalamazoo. Bruce was born in Zeeland, MI, the fourth son of six of Henry and Gertrude Brink Kuipers. The boys grew up running a working farm and were all avid outdoorsmen from a very young age, mixing their farm chores with hunting pheasants and tending trap lines. Their mischievous sense of humor can be traced back to their sainted mother, but blossomed in the river bottoms and fence rows where the boys were somewhat less supervised. Bruce married his high school sweetheart Nancy Nienhuis in 1963 before moving to Everett, Washington to serve in the U.S. Air Force. He was stationed at Paine Field, where he spent off-duty hours bowling and stalking trout in Ebey Lake. Their first son, Jeffrey Dean, was born in Everett in 1964. The family returned to Michigan in August of 1968, and their second son, Brett, was born in 1969. Their third son, Joel, was born in Holland, Michigan in 1970 while Bruce studied building trades at Western Michigan University. He received a B.A. from WMU in 1972. After working for Jerry Stifler, now of Continental Construction Company, as well as Peachtree Door and American Buildings, Bruce launched his own successful contracting firm, Delta Design Systems, which specialized in designing and erecting custom steel buildings. Works by Delta Design house many well-known businesses and attractions in Southwest Michigan, including the Air Zoo at the airport in Portage. Bruce and Nancy's marriage ended in 1988, but they kept the closeness of family. By then, deer hunting had become an abiding passion for Bruce - what hunting philosopher Jose Ortega y Gassett called "an almost mystical agitation" - and he devoted his free time to adventuring with his brothers and sons on Michigan's classic rivers and the Kuipers' family hunt club near Hesperia. He hunted all over the Western U.S., including Arizona, Colorado, Montana and New Mexico, where he bow hunted for elk every fall, usually quite successfully. He was also a proud member of Ducks Unlimited and Safari Club International. After he retired in 2007, Bruce spent months of the year in the woods, and whether successful or not he often remarked how he enjoyed simply observing wildlife as much as any other part. He took particular joy in practicing ethical hunting, the fair chase, and in eating wild game. He believed in his role in the woods, described by the poet Robinson Jeffers: "What but the wolf's tooth whittled so fine / The fleet limbs of the antelope." He met Diane Hamilton Bronkema in church and the two were married in 2004, sealing their joy by endeavoring to train two hunting dogs, wirehaired pointing griffons named Libby and Greta. Bruce's contemplative days in the woods and Bible study led him to live life according to one of his favorite verses, Matthew 6:33: "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." He is survived by his wife, Diane, three sons Jeffrey Dean, Brett and Joel and their mother Nancy; two grandchildren, Spenser and Hazel Jane; and four brothers: Dale deceased and Sandra; Ron Micheline, Vern Sally, Jack Jane, and Michael Barbara. A memorial service will be held at 1pm on Thursday at the Calvary Bible Church, 855 South Drake Rd., with Pastor John Barnett officiating. Friends may meet the family on Wednesday evening from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at Langeland Family Funeral Home Westside Chapel, 3926 South 9th Street. 269-343-1508. Memorial contributions in Bruce's memory may be made to American Cancer Society, Kalamazoo Chapter, or Rehoboth Christian School, New Mexico. Please visit www.langelands.com to sign the online register book, view the video tribute and leave a condolence to the family.