How to donate in Bud Van Cleve’s name
In lieu of flowers the family has asked that donations be made in memory of Van Cleve to the Hazel Dell Youth Party (checks made out to Three Creeks Community Partners; visit www.threecreekscommunitypartners.org) or to Boys & Girls Clubs of Vancouver (checks to the Clinton and Gloria John Boys & Girls Club, 409 N.E. Anderson Road Vancouver, 98665).
During a celebration honoring the life of Bud Van Cleve on Saturday, one of his daughters said Van Cleve would be greeted in heaven by friends and family members who loved him.
And if Van Cleve’s life served as any insight into his afterlife, those friends and family will likely be greeted by a man with unfailing energy and a few ideas on how to improve the place.
Van Cleve, whose moniker was the “Mayor of Hazel Dell,” died on Nov. 5 at age 84. On Saturday afternoon, at the Vancouver First Church of God, friends and family remembered a loving father and husband, a caring grandfather and a man who was involved in more than 60 local boards, committees, councils and organizations.
Doug Ballou, who worked with Van Cleve in the Northeast Hazel Dell Neighborhood Association, told a story of a time Van Cleve took a piece of asphalt to the county commissioners to illustrate the need for some local road improvements.
“Did Bud get that road repaved? You bet he did,” Ballou said.
Ballou also told of the first of the annual holiday children’s parties to serve mostly low-income kids. Van Cleve started the party with his own money 17 years ago.
At the first holiday party, Ballou said, nobody knew what to expect. But within an hour, there were too many people to fit in the space they had reserved for the party.
“Bud would say, ‘We won’t turn a child away,’ ” Ballou remembered.
These days, the celebration often draws 1,000 neighborhood children. This year, the party will be held on the evening of Dec. 18 at Sarah J. Anderson Elementary, 2215 N.E. 104th St.
Van Cleve also loved to involve his family, enlisting grandkids and in-laws to shop and wrap presents.
He was a man who enjoyed devoting “his energy for the benefit of all,” Ballou said during the eulogy.
Van Cleve was awarded the Spirit of Clark County award several times.
Sherry Van Cleve, the wife of Ballard Eugene Van Cleve, said her husband’s true passion was caring for needy children and families. Van Cleve grew up in Arkansas and worked for the Brown Shoe Company of St. Louis.
One of his favorite sayings was, “You don’t have to move to live in a better community,” Leslie Morrison said in a tribute on Saturday.
And there’s hardly a place you can go in Clark County, she said, where Van Cleve didn’t have an impact.
Van Cleve is survived by three children with Sherry, four children from his first marriage (one preceded him in death), and seven grandchildren.
