Leaders at Grand Valley State University and in the West Michigan
community are mourning the death of Casey Wondergem over the Memorial
Day weekend. He was 81.
Wondergem was an advisor to the university and its foundation,
helping to shape and facilitate Grand Valley’s growth and attract
private support in the 1980s and 1990s. Most recently, Grand Valley
honored Wondergem with an appointment in 2008 to the Grand Valley
University Foundation’s Advisory Cabinet. The public relations
professional also served on the campaign committee for Shaping Our
Future, the university’s comprehensive fundraising campaign.
“Grand Valley State University has lost a valued advisor and
friend, and the community has lost an influential leader,” said Grand
Valley President Thomas J. Haas. “Casey helped to build and shape the
Grand Rapids community through his insightful and intuitive counsel,
which he shared with innumerable business and philanthropic organizations.
“I am saddened at his passing, but grateful for his lasting
positive impact on our students through the guidance and support he
gave Grand Valley in its developmental years,” Haas said.
Wondergem began his relationship with Grand Valley State University as development counsel. He helped to found and grow the Grand Valley University Foundation as a source of private support for the university.
“Casey is the founder of Grand Valley’s development program.
Together he and I launched the Grand Valley University Foundation,
whose members and staff have raised millions of private dollars for
the university,” said Arend D. Lubbers, president emeritus of Grand
Valley. “While working together, our close personal friendship
flourished and his departure is a deep personal loss for me.”
Wondergem also was an early architect of the Grand Valley
University Foundation Enrichment Dinner, which began in 1976 as one of
West Michigan’s first community-wide black-tie fundraising galas. The
dinner continues today as a pre-eminent event among the region’s
philanthropic and social circles.
Wondergem’s well-known creative touch is typified by the “Land
Barons Club” at Grand Valley created with Richard M. DeVos, general
chairman of the GVU Foundation. This small and informal group of
philanthropists played an instrumental role securing land and funding
for expanding Grand Valley’s downtown campus in the mid-1990s.
In other community involvement, Wondergem also served as counsel
to Pine Rest Hospital and founded the Pine Rest Foundation in 1961. He
served on numerous community boards, including the Grand Rapids
Symphony Orchestra, DeVos Children’s Hospital Foundation, the
Butterworth Blodgett Foundation, and the Grand Rapids Community
Foundation board, which he chaired for two years. He and his late wife
Violet received the 2001 Grand Rapids Arts Council Award.
In 1981, Richard M. DeVos and Jay Van Andel brought Casey to
Amway Corporation as director of public relations and corporate
sponsorships. Wondergem also served as director of the Jay and Betty
Van Andel Foundation for 12 years, and later served the Van Andel
Institute.
