Albertus Engen

Bert van Engen was born on July 11, 1925 in the Netherlands. His brother, Ronald van Engen, was born in 1931 and still lives there. During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in World War II his father, Hendrik van Engen, was a freedom fighter and was captured and died in Neuengamme Concentration Camp in Germany in 1945.

After the war, Bert studied landscape architecture and served as a lieutenant in the Royal Dutch Army. In 1952 he emigrated to the United States and became a U.S. citizen in 1957. He worked in agriculture and related construction and enrolled in the University of Nebraska to study architecture. While working for an architectural firm in Lincoln, he met Eloise Mueller and they married in 1960.

From Lincoln they moved to Denver, and then to Colorado Springs, where they lived for 30 years. In 1989, they moved to Maui, Hawaii where they lived for 12 years and where they were very active members of Kihei Lutheran Church, and where, so importantly to Bert, he found Christ in his life. In 2002 Bert and Eloise moved back to the mainland near sons Erik of Richmand, Virginia and Kurt (Justine) of Reston, Virginia. In 2009 they returned to Colorado, to Parker, where son Steve (Whitney) reside. Bert & Eloise became members of Our Father Lutheran Church in Denver.

His beloved wife Eloise, his three sons, and their families survive Bert as well as his brother Ronald, his nephew Paul, and his sisters-in-law Shirley, Dorothy, Lois, Camillus, and Ellen. Grandchildren are: Joshua, Willem, Ella, Mason, Logan, and Auden van Engen.

Bert tried to live to the Glory of God and trust in God's eternal life.