Gordon Konroy Van Devener

Gordon was born on November 20, 1942 in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Tilda (Senum) and Roy Van Devener. Some of his favorite pastimes as a child included playing outdoors near the lakes and in the parks of Minneapolis. After graduating from Edison High School in 1960, he went on to proudly serve in the Marine Corps at Quantico in Virginia and Camp Pendleton in California until 1963.

After leaving the Marines, Gordy returned to Minnesota where he worked as a surveyor and studied forestry at the University of Minnesota. Gordy met his future bride Kathleen (Harvey) at a New Year’s Eve party in 1967. They fell in love and were married in August of that year and would go on to have three children: Donald, Marie, and Brian. Gordy and Kathy remained married until the time of his death, and they just missed celebrating their 56th wedding anniversary.

Throughout the 1970’s, he worked long hours to provide for his family, renovated several homes and continued to study for his Bachelor’s degree. Projects around the house would often provoke his temper when, inevitably, things didn’t go as planned, but his dogged sense of persistence always pushed him to finish what he started. Through it all he would still occasionally find time to enjoy the Minnesota wilderness that he loved through hunting and fishing. He was also an avid stamp collector and spent countless hours sorting and cataloguing while he added to his collection.

In 1982, following a brief stint starting his own company as a draftsman, he accepted a position as a project manager and bid estimator for Ames Construction, Inc. He worked with Ames for 22 years until his retirement in 2004. Ames took Gordy and his family west, where they settled in North Dakota, Colorado and Utah. He was a devoted employee, and would beam with pride when discussing the many projects that he helped work on, including notable civil engineering works: the Lignite Coal Power Plant in North Dakota in the early 1980’s, I-70 through Glenwood Canyon in Colorado in the 1980’s and the Denver International Airport in the early 1990’s. Some of his fondest memories came from his time working for Ames.

During his retirement years, Gordy and Kathy enjoyed travelling the world taking a number of river cruises through Europe, China, Russia and more.

Gordon is survived by his wife Kathleen, his children: Donald (Shannon) Van Devener, Marie (Richard) Olejniczak, Brian Van Devener, four grandchildren and his sister Sharon (Bud) Johnson.

There will be a memorial service at 10 a.m., August 29, 2023 at Olinger Crown Hill Mortuary in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, followed by a military service at 1:30 p.m., August 29, 2023 at Ft. Logan National Cemetery in Denver, Colorado.