Joan was born to Dr. Thies and Aletta (Wyngarden) DeYoung on September 7, 1923 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and was the oldest of five children. She attended a one-room grade school in Sparta and graduated from Sparta High School. Like the rest of the family, she grew up helping out in her father’s medical office, which was located in the family home. At Hope College, her first semester included December 7, 1941, which helped her decide to become a nurse. She completed nursing school at Presbyterian Hospital in Chicago and returned to Hope College to finish her bachelor’s degree. She worked as a campus nurse during college and later taught nursing at Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids.
Joan also met her husband Paul E. Hinkamp II at Hope College. They married in 1950 and moved to Columbus, OH where she worked in the college health clinic while Paul completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry. In 1953 Paul took a job at Dow Chemical and they moved to Midland, Michigan, where they raised three children. The family was active in the First United Methodist Church, scouting, and the neighborhood, where she shared childcare responsibilities with neighbors Marge Englund, Eileen Behr, and Marilyn Helmreich who became some of her longest and dearest friends.
Later, Joan’s love of nursing drew her back to Midland Hospital (later called Mid-Michigan Medical Center) where she worked part-time for 19 years. She also enjoyed hand knitting and later became an accomplished machine knitter, knitting hundreds of hats, scarves, and mittens for needy youth.
Joan and Paul’s love of country and the natural world inspired a lifetime of camping and RV trips to national parks and other sites throughout the country, though Michigan’s lower and upper peninsula remained favorite destinations.
After nearly 42 years of marriage, Paul died in 1992. Joan remarried in 1994 to Sam Ketchman and spent winters in Florida until his death in 2000, when she returned to Midland. In 2013 she moved to Portland, OR, to be near her daughter and son.
Family includes her children Dr. David Hinkamp (wife, Lourdes Rocha), Janet Hinkamp (husband, the late Russell Cwalinski), and Steven Hinkamp; her step-daughter Jean Ann (Ketchman) Scott; siblings Marcia (DeYoung) Stegenga, the late Dr. Maynard DeYoung, Kenneth DeYoung, and the late Gordon Paul DeYoung; grandchildren Jonathan and Timothy, and a host of extended family members.
In honor of her request, her ashes will be placed in the memorial garden of the First United Methodist Church of Midland, MI, with a memorial date to be announced later.
Memorial donations are gratefully accepted for the Paul and Joan Hinkamp Scholarship Fund, Hope College Development Office, 141 E. 12th St., PO Box 9000, Holland, MI 49422-9000
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