On October 21, 2021 Jacob (Jake) Boer passed away after a long battle with dementia at the age of 85.
Jake was born on September 13, 1936 in Papendrecht, The Netherlands to Jacob and Marigje Boer, the 3rd oldest of 6 brothers. After World War 2 ended, he immigrated to Canada in about 1953, eventually finding work on a farm near Winnipeg which was owned by an order of Trappist monks. Though the work appealed to him, it wasn’t enough to raise a family on so he moved to the Port Arthur/Fort William area (now Thunder Bay) where he met his future wife, Kathleen Vis. Jake and Kathy wed on October 1, 1959 and were married for 50 years until Kathy’s death in 2009. They had 3 boys, Jacob, Richard and David and no daughters but 2 girls came into their lives who they fell completely in love with and adopted them as their own, Theresa and Antionette (Toni). On top of their own children, they were also foster parents for over 40 years.
Jake worked at Klomp-Wakefield Dairy for a few years until he started employment at Canada Malting, where he worked until his retirement about 25 years ago. While he was employed there, he was president of the local union where he was able to make improvements to the benefits for the other workers. After Jake retired, him and Kathy along with a number of children that they were fostering at the time, including one very special child, Glennie, moved to Pearson Township, later Neebing where Jake was able to pursue his passion of farming. He had a small but fruitful hobby farm which was his pride and joy. Jake was a very family-oriented man and not only worked hard to provide for them, but he was also a father in the best sense of the word. Not too much would faze him, he would just deal with things as they came along and then get on with it. He valued education for his children and did his best to see that we had as good an education as was possible. Shortly after Kathy passed away, Jake was diagnosed with dementia and lost his driver’s license so his son and daughter-in-law Carolin moved to the property to take care of him. Jake and Carolin both loved to garden and they spent every summer planning what to grow so they could sell it at the Farmer’s Market where they were well known.
Jake is survived by his children Jacob (Joyce), Richard (Deborah), David and Theresa (John) as well as grandchildren Jacob (Andrea), Craig, Wesley (Genevieve), Marie, Melissa, Adrian (Wilma), Katrina, Seline, David Jr (Ivy), Kathryn (Gerry), Jennifer (Andrew) Kyle and Julia as well as a number of great grandchildren. He is also survived by his brothers Jan and Cor in the Netherlands and Adrian in Thunder Bay. Jake is predeceased by his wife Kathy, daughter Toni, daughter-in-law Carolin, grandson Aaron as well as his parents and brothers Hermann and Peter.
Cremation has taken place and a service and internment will take place at a later date when the family can come together as one.
