Laree David Van Wyck

LaRee David Van Wyck, age 97 years, of Cherryville, NJ, died on Friday, June 24, 2016. Born in Modena, NY, June 20, 1919, he was the son of the late Wilbur and Jennie Fowler Van Wyck. He had resided in Cherryville for the past sixty- seven years.

"Van" was a Great Depression farm boy who grew up to hand machine satellite parts for the US space program at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, NJ. He worked at Bell Labs as a machinist for 33 years where he was known as "the Farmer".

Along the way Van became a truck driver. He drove a MACK chain-drive dump truck and helped build the Catskill aqueduct tunnels which carries water to New York City. Since he couldn't turn around in the tunnel, he spent half of each workday backing the truck out of the tunnel!

He was a machinist in the WW II war effort and a backyard mechanic all of his life.

Van and his wife Elsie designed and built their house in Cherryville from the ground up recycling material from old barns that he tore down. In the 1950's he converted an old school bus into a travel van and toured the western US with his family.

Van and Elsie loved to square dance and were members of the "Hunterdon Flutterwheels Square Dance Club" for many years.

Van was a friend to many and always willing to lend a helping hand.

He was predeceased by his wife of sixty-three years, Elsie E. Van Wyck, in 2003. Surviving are his daughters, Laureen Kenoyer of Flemington, NJ and Judith Burns, and son-in-law Albert Burns of Fallston, MD; three grandchildren, Christopher Kenoyer of San Diego, CA., Jennifer Myers of Forest Hill, MD., and Carol Burns of Arlington, VA.; three great-grandchildren, Michael, Emily, and Amanda Myers; a brother, Wilbur Van Wyck of Dunnellon, FL; and a sister, Carrie Mae DeWinter, of Pella, IA

Funeral services will be held on Thursday, June 30, 2016 at 11 AM in the Holcombe-Fisher Funeral Home, 147 Main Street, Flemington, NJ. Interment will be in Cherryville Mountainview Cemetery, Cherryville, NJ. Calling hours will be held on Wednesday, June 29, 2016 from 6-8 PM in the funeral home.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Cherryville Mountainview Cemetery Association, 595 Cherryville Road, Flemington, N.J. 08822.