Jerry Van Dyk's classification

Jerry says his last name comes from Van Dijk which means 'from the dike' and his first derives from Gerritt which means brave with a spear.  He had some pictures of his parents' families - his mother and father both had 6 siblings.  His father grew up on a farm and wanted to stay but the place went to his brother so he came to Canada and worked in factories to save money.  Jerry's mother came over separately - they had known each other back home but met again here and were married in the early 50's.  They were perfectionists so after Jerry was born they tried again to see if they could do better and so Jerry has a sister and a brother.  His brother stayed on the farm and has expanded it - from 60 milk cows to 130 - and the family - he and his wife have 9 children.

Jerry enjoyed life on the farm.  As kids they made their own fun but they worked hard too.  Days off, they went to their cousin's place and did the chores there. After a while he acquired a lime green pickup and got married but that only lasted about 5 years.  He liked farming and wanted to keep at it and determined to quit school at grade 10, which he did and worked for his Dad for 8 years but started to feel that he could use a day off here and there - friends from Town who got weekends off showed him there was a different life.

So he took some upgrading courses and found he was good at bookkeeping and he got enough credits to go to college and graduated as an accountant at 30.  He took a job with Emco that lasted 17 years but involved quite a bit of variety because he was moved from subsidiary to subsidiary up and down the 401, each job lasting a few years.  Then he got into some of the acquisitions and divestitures the company was involved in and worked on the sale of Kindred to Franke.  He saw that the company had a good product and a good profile and that Midland was a great place so he took a job with them that should have lasted 3 years and is now at 15.

Four years ago he met Helen who fills in his missing pieces and who has two of the greatest kids you could ask for.  Couldn't do better if you ordered them out of a catalogue.

While still in his 40's he became a volunteer firefighter.  He had thought you needed good eyesight but apparently the job is limited to putting the wet stuff on the hot stuff.  He enjoys being one of the grunts, doesn't want to take on more but feels it is helping people who need it.

He's a fan of NASCAR, Transpo and Monster Trucks, he goes to concerts and ball games and every now and then he goes back to the farm and drives a tractor.  In fact he enjoys that so much he collects them - has a room full of toy tractors all in plastic and a few real ones too.  All Internationals.  He has a model similar to the one his father first had and the actual one he learned to drive on and one with twin turbos.  He likes the fall, cutting firewood, watching the leaves, harvesting crops and running equipment.

If you have the need, he will bury your horse, burn stuff for you or make a splash pool for you dog - all skills in high demand.

And he likes other things involving engines - jet skis, ski doos, ATV's and etc.