Sue & Robert VanDeusen's Home in Grand Junction
Sue & Robert lived in their home at 2575 Music Lane in Grand Junction Colorado from 1960 - 2000. Robert (known by friends and colleagues as "Van") designed and acted as the general contractor for this home. All four children grew up in this house and later the grandchildren spent summers with Sue and Van there. The landscaping was designed to integrate with the surrounding undeveloped land below the house which we called "the gulley." We all have many happy memories of this house and hours of unsupervised time playing in the gulley. The beautiful spaces in the house, filled with mid century modern furniture, created a wonderful environment for our family.
The house has since been sold, but grandaughter Eleanor Simpson Bystrom (Ellie) created a beautiful series of paintings, all from memory, which memorialize this house and our parents and the life we all shared there.
Sue VanDeusen
September 18, 1922 to January 16, 2015
Sue VanDeusen, the devoted wife of Robert A. VanDeusen (deceased 1999) and much-loved mother of four surviving children: Sarah Simpson, Robert VanDeusen Jr., Bradley VanDeusen and Eleanor VanDeusen passed away on January 16th after a short illness. Born September 18, 1922 in Clarkston Michigan, Sue attended college at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where she met her future husband and they were married in 1943. After Robert’s service in the Navy during World War II, they lived in Boston where Robert graduated from Harvard Architectural School. They moved to Colorado and, eventually settled in Grand Junction, Colorado in 1948 where Robert established an architectural practice and they raised their four children and were valued members of the community. Over the years Sue contributed countless hours of volunteer energy to the Grand Junction Symphony and Art Center as well as supporting the Mesa College dance and theatre programs. Sue and Robert were active members of the Grand Junction Unitarian Fellowship, now known as the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Grand Valley.
Sue was a life-long reader who remained curious about the world around her and continued to read all manner of books, magazines and newspapers for her entire life. She was a devoted mother who passed her love of art, architecture, music, dance, theatre, wine and good food on to all four of her children. She is also survived by her five beloved grandchildren, Eleanor Nalini BystrÖm, Amelia Ferrie Lee, Rachael Miller, Will Ferrie and Samantha Scovel.