Obituary: Naomi Ruth Van Domelen

Naomi Ruth Van Domelen

Naomi Ruth Van Domelen

“A Life full of Love, Family, Friends, Travel and Joy”

Naomi Ruth Van Domelen, loving wife and mother, age 79, of Prescott, Arizona, died on Sunday, April 24, 2016, while in hospice care in Peoria, Arizona.

Memorial services will be held at the Boldt Funeral Home, Faribault on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2016 at 10 a.m. with the Reverend Richard L. Jorgensen officiating. Interment will be held at Maple Lawn Cemetery, Faribault.

Memorial visitation will be held at the Boldt Funeral Home, Faribault for one hour prior to the services on Thursday.

Naomi, the daughter of Clifford and Nell Kittlesen, was born on Aug. 4, 1936, in Albert Lea, Minnesota. She grew up in Frost, Minnesota, and graduated from Frost High School in 1954. She attended St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, for two years until her mother died. She went home to help care for her father and stayed until the fall when her eldest sister convinced her father that Frost was not the best place for a young woman who wanted to see the world. He got her a job at a bank in Minneapolis, Minnesota and set her up at a girls club to live. She became a skilled bookkeeper, developed a wonderful group of friends and took every opportunity to travel that she could. Over the next 10 years, she took family members on two long trips to the far west, spent four months in Europe traveling with friends, worked in Phoenix, Arizona, for a winter, ski bummed at Alta, Utah, for a winter, worked in Kansas City, Missouri, and just kept traveling whenever she could.

In the spring of 1966, while visiting her sister, Helen in Riverside, California, she met an Air Force Lieutenant stationed with her brother-in-law at March AFB. After a whirlwind week of dates, they went their separate ways until he came to his senses and began writing her while serving in Vietnam. She agreed to come to Hawaii for his R&R in February of 1967. The 5th day together, he proposed and she accepted. He put the ring on her finger the day he came home and they were married 45 days later, Sept. 30, 1967, at the Chapel at March AFB. In 1969, after John left the service, they moved to Green Bay, Wisconsin. While there she helped her brother put together a highly detailed family history. In 1970, they moved to Madison, Wisconsin, so John could obtain a Ph.D. She returned to bookkeeping at a bank so they could make ends meet. In 1973, a son, Andrew John Van Domelen, arrived and there could not have been a happier, loving, caring and prouder mother. In 1974, they moved to Northfield, Vermont, where John eventually became VP for Academic Affairs and Dean for Norwich University. Naomi was deeply involved in charitable activities for the university and community. She cherished the friends she made in Northfield until the day she passed away. She developed computer skills early in her Northfield days and became the family correspondent, keeping everyone informed of important news. In 1990, John became president of a college in Boston, Massachusetts. Naomi’s warmth and charm served her well as first lady of the Institute. She designed their retirement home in Prescott, Arizona, to which they moved in 2005.

Travel throughout the west in a small RV and took trips to Canada, Alaska, Mexico, Europe, Scotland, England, Central & South America, and the USA to visit friends and the family she so loved, filled her retirement years. In 2011, she was finding Prescott a bit cold in the winter, so for Valentine’s Day, John bought her a winter home in Peoria, Arizona. This also enabled her to be close to her niece, Karen Parker, who was six days younger and wintered there with her husband, Ron. They grew up together and Naomi always felt she was her 3rd sister. Naomi often said: “I had a life I never could have imagined growing up in Frost.”

Naomi is survived by her husband John of Prescott, Arizona; son, Andrew of Peoria, Arizona; sister, Helen (and Joe) Ramos of Grand Terrace, California; brothers, Neil (and Bobbie Spradley) of Mendota Heights and Jim (and Karen) of Faribault, Minnesota; sister-in-law, Vivian Kittlesen of Cross Lake, Minnesota; sister-in-law, Christine Van Domelen of Houghton, Michigan; as well as innumerable god children, nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews, and great great nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Clifford and Nell Kittlesen; brothers, Click and John Kittlesen; sister, Dorothy (Ken) Nesheim; and a niece, Kris (Kittlesen) Onken.

Her favorite saying was: “Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and proclaiming, ‘Wow, what a ride!!!’”

Visit boldtfuneralhome.com for information and guest book.

Information provided by survivors.


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