Van Spalding Schroder

Van Hilliard Spalding Schroder, a fourth-generation native Atlantan who survived the devastating 1926 Great Miami Hurricane and grew up to be a most-loved wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother to a large Atlanta family, passed away at age 99 in Atlanta on Sunday, March 13.

Born October 31, 1916 on Piedmont Road to Alice and Hilliard Spalding, her sisters were June (Mrs. William Glenn) and Patsy (Mrs. Morton Hodgson). Van was a member of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America and loved researching history and ancestors in print and online, including her great-grandfather, former U.S. Congressman and diplomat Henry W. Hilliard, as well as a Jamestown, Virginia minister who married Pocahontas and John Rolfe in 1614.

Overcoming a troubled childhood, raised by a single mother, she flourished with her determined spirit. Van was voted “Most Popular” by her 1933 North Fulton High School classmates and was the school’s oldest surviving graduate. While volunteering at a North Fulton play, she ushered her future husband and mother-in-law, Suzanne Spalding Schroder. After Van seated them, Suzanne turned to her son, Jack Spalding Schroder, and said, “You should date a nice young woman like that one!” Five years later, he married her. In her research, Van discovered they had a common Spalding ancestor sixteen generations earlier in England.

After their marriage the couple lived at “Deerland,” the Peachtree Road home of the groom’s grandfather, Jack J. Spalding, who founded King & Spalding in 1885. Deerland is now the site of Piedmont Hospital. Van worked at Capital Cadillac before Spalding served as a military doctor in the South Pacific during World War II.

More than anything, Van loved the Lord, converting to Catholicism after her marriage, becoming a 70-year member of the Cathedral of Christ the King. She was a charter member of The Ceramic Circle of Atlanta, which boasted 30 members during her tenure. She and her sisters-in-law were active members of the Habersham Garden Club and Van was a founding trustee of Big Canoe Chapel. She was a “doer.” When she saw her oldest daughter and friends sitting around one summer, Van helped organize what is believed to be the city’s first group of “candy-stripers,” a group of six teenage girls who volunteered at St. Joseph’s Hospital.

Her five children nicknamed her “Moving Van” – her CB-radio “handle” in the 1970s – for her habit of moving her family to a new Atlanta residence every seven years. A “city girl” who loved life and the pulse of Atlanta’s activity, Van reflected the energy she found in a roomful of people. She focused so much of her amazing ability to engage her family, becoming central to their lifelong sense of extraordinary connectedness. Throughout her nearly 100 years on earth, she continually amazed others with her zest for life ¬– including her frequent presence on Facebook well into her 90s. After her husband died in 1994, Van purchased and enjoyed spending time at her St. Simons Island home. She became an active resident at Buckhead’s retirement community, Lenbrook, where she continued oil painting, organizing art shows, parties and other social gatherings.

Survivors include five children, Suzanne Schroder Cronk (Joe), Van Schroder Waddy, Jack Schroder (Karen), Michael Schroder (Martiele) and Chris Schroder (Jan), 13 grandchildren and step-grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren and step great-grandchildren, as well as many devoted nieces (including Sue Kalkhurst Saul) and nephews who looked to her for spiritual guidance following their parents’ deaths.