Corliss W. "Wes" Vander Mei was born into a farm family near Sioux City, Iowa, in 1926. His earliest memories were of life on the farm with his five siblings. When the Dust Bowl and Depression forced his family off their farm in 1936, they packed up their clothing and moved to Southern California, joining other family members who had already done the same. There he became a Seventh-day Adventist, a faith he followed for the rest of his life. He attended high school at La Sierra Academy in what is now Riverside, California.
He was drafted into the US Army in 1944, during WWII, and assigned to the army of occupation in northern Italy. There he served as a medical corpsman, though he never saw combat. While on leave from the Army, after basic training but before being shipped abroad, he returned briefly to La Sierra and married his high school sweetheart, Joan Thompson. They remained married until her death in 2018.
He returned to Las Sierra and enrolled at La Sierra College (now University), graduating with a BA degree and trained to become a teacher. His son William, was born while Wes was still in college. Another child was born there as well, but only survived for two days.
He held a series of teaching positions for the next 20 years, from Tucson, Arizona to Caldwell, Idaho, Scottsdale, AZ and Campbell, CA. Once his son had finished college, married and started his first job, they accepted an opportunity to work at an SDA mission at Debre Tabor, in the highlands of Ethiopia. He enjoyed his work there, but was forced to leave when most foreigners were expelled in the wake of the 1974 revolution that toppled the monarchy.
Returning to the US, he again found a position as an elementary teacher in Bakersfield, CA but then decided to change careers. They moved to Milpitas, California, where they both took jobs at a publishing house while he enrolled in San Jose State University and earned a Master’s degree in library science.
His first job as a librarian was at the Weimar Institute, a small college near Auburn, CA. Because it is not far from Sacramento, they were around to see all three of their grandchildren soon after they were born and spend time with them. The two older grandchildren enjoyed playing on the campus outside the library.
In 1983 the opportunity came along to become the head librarian of a much larger college, but one that was located in Solusi, Zimbabwe. It was far from home, but they had been far from home when they served in Ethiopia and were not afraid of it. They loved their time in Solusi and retained friends and fond memories of it long after the end of their six-year term of service.
Upon returning to the US, Wes took a job as assistant librarian at Columbia Union College (now Washington Adventist University) in Tacoma Park, MD. He and Joan very much enjoyed the cultural life of the nearby District of Columbia.
He retired after four years there, and they moved to Sacramento to be near their son and daughter-in-law, Jan, and of course their three grandchildren. They were very much involved in the lives of their family. They continued to live in Sacramento until Joan’s death in 2018. He remained another three years before selling their long-time home and moving to a senior living facility in 2021.
He became seriously ill in early 2024, and was hospitalized in early February. On the advice of the hospitals medical staff, he was discharge to a board and care facility and placed under hospice care. He continued to lose his battle with illness and died in his sleep on May 30, at age 97. He is survived by his son and daughter in law, grandsons Justin, Brendan and Jonathan and three grandchildren. He will be interred at Mt. Vernon Memorial Park in Fair Oaks, CA, next to his wife of 72 years.
Always a generous man with both his time and money, he was also a kind man with a wry sense of humor that added enjoyment to everything he said. He died in the hope of the Resurrection and will be remembered and missed for as long as any of his family lives.
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