Henny Spaanbroek Caldwell , age 100, departed this life on November 1, 2021, in Blowing Rock, NC. Henny was born in Amsterdam, Holland, on November 17, 1920, and moved with her family to Asheville, NC, in 1929. She spent her formative years in Asheville, where she met the love of her life, George C. Caldwell, at Asheville High School. They were married on April 30, 1942 – a wartime wedding story that Henny dearly loved to tell. Over the following years, George’s graduate studies took them to Chapel Hill, NC, and Baltimore, MD. They then moved to Raleigh, NC, and Atlanta, GA, where they raised their three boys, Chuck, Jack, and Paul. Henny lost George tragically in 1973 and continued living in Atlanta until 1991. She lived the rest of her life in the Asheville area, spending the last 12 years at Trinity View Retirement Community in Arden.
Besides being employed by various companies and universities before retiring from Georgia Tech in 1991, Henny was very active in her sons’ and grandchildren’s activities such as scouting, sports, and traveling. She was an avid volunteer in numerous church and social organizations, notably spending 17 years volunteering for the Asheville Police Department.
Although small in stature, Henny had a moral compass, intelligence, graciousness, and sense of humor that had an outsized influence on others in her roles as daughter, sister, wife, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, great grandmother, sister-in-law, aunt, colleague, and friend. She truly delighted in the accomplishments of her family and friends, and her devotion to them was unswerving. She had a caring heart, an infectious warmth, and an ability to put people at ease, exemplified in her years of hosting colleagues, friends, and students from UNC, NC State and Georgia Tech. She and George welcomed friends and strays alike, who showed up at their famous unscripted New Year’s Eve parties. One of her favorite life-long activities was spending time in her beloved western North Carolina mountains, especially visiting the Mount Pisgah Inn and traveling the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Henny was preceded in death by her husband, Dr. George C. Caldwell, and siblings Jacque Spaanbroek Jordan, Leo Spaanbroek, and George Spaanbroek. She is survived by her three sons, George Caldwell, Jr., John Caldwell and his wife, Cathy, and Paul Caldwell and his wife, Lynn. Henny, known to many as Mama Henny, is also survived by six grandchildren, Yael Smith (husband Patrick), Rachel Rose (husband Max), Ryan Caldwell (wife Kristen Clardy), Melissa Caldwell (husband Steven Swinford), Sarah Caldwell (husband Tyler Barnes), and Jeff Caldwell, eight great-grandchildren, and her sister-in-law Mary Stakias Spaanbroek.
A memorial service will be held at Trinity View, 2533 Hendersonville Road, Arden, NC 28704, at 10:00 AM on November 22, 2021. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to: Trinity View, in memory of Henny Caldwell.
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