Richard Klaver

Rich was born Ruurd Klaver in Boelenslaan, Friesland, on Oct 31, 1938, as the fourth out of nine children. At eight years old he moved with his family from The Netherlands to Michigan, then to Everson, Washington, and finally to Surrey, BC when he was 14.

He went to school up to grade eight and then worked to help support his family. He apprenticed as a mechanic at Columbia Dodge in New Westminster in 1957 and worked most of his life as a mechanic and service manager for Chrysler, and later, the parts manager in Babine Truck and Equipment, a business he started in 1987.

Rich met Betty Annie Bergen on a blind date when she was 15 and he was 19. They married in 1961 and had four children in the next ten years, Roger, Sheila, Jason, and Ryan. To get away from the pollution of the lower mainland, they moved to Smithers in 1975 where they bought 40 acres and built a beautiful house, Rich doing most of the work himself. They lived there until 2011 when they returned to the warmer, less icy, and snowy, climate of Surrey. In 2018 they moved to the country in South Langley on a small acreage with their daughter Sheila and her husband Adrian.

In 2020 Rich was diagnosed with Stevens-Johnson syndrome 10, which made it difficult for him to do the work he loved around the property, and in 2022 he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. On Feb 3, 2023, at home and in the presence of his wife Betty, God called him home to eternal glory.

John 11:25-26

"Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.' ”

Psalms 147:3

"He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds."

Rich is predeceased by his parents, Hielke and Pietje Klaver, an infant sister, and brothers Johnnie, Hank, and Paul.