Celebrating the Life
of Paul C. Van Valkenburgh

Paul C. Van Valkenburgh, whose life took him from the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota to the corporate headquarters of General Motors in New York City, died June 14, 1998. He was 95.

At the time of his death, Paul C. was the oldest retired officer of GM. He retired as vice president of General Motors Acceptance Corporation, the financial arm of GM, after a 40-year career with the company. He died at Extended Care Hospital of Riverside, of acute renal failure.

Paul C. was the son of a Congregational minister who homesteaded in South Dakota, taking the young Paul with him in a Ford car with isinglass curtains to build a tarpaper-covered house.

In 1926, with a business degree from the University of Nebraska, he began his GM career, starting in collections in Nebraska. He subsequently headed the GM offices in Omaha, Sioux City, IA, St. Louis, Denver and Cleveland, where he led the diesel-motors operation. Later, Paul C. was promoted to GM's corporate headquarters, where he served until his retirement in 1965. He returned to Omaha after his retirement, maintaining a winter home in Naples, FL. He took up winter residence in Green Valley, AZ, in 1976, moving there full time in 1985. He lived there until 1996, when he moved to Riverside, CA, to be near his late daughter's husband and his wife.

Paul C.'s many organizations and activities included membership in the Green Valley Masonic Lodge #71, the Sabbar Shrine in Tucson, the Green Valley Shrine Club, the Scottish Rite in Omaha, the Santa Rita High Twelve Club NO. 562, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Alumni Club of Delta Sigma Phi, business and professional fraternity, and Beta Gamma Sigma, international honorary fraternity. He was Honorary Chairman of the Board, The National Association of the Van Valkenburg Family, Inc.

His wife, Mae, and their daughter, Joan, preceded him in death. He is survived by two grandchildren, Erin Keables of Naperville, IL, and Shaun Savage of Aloha, OR, five great-granddaughters, his sister Louise Thompson of Arlington, NE, and a brother Rollin E. Van Valkenburgh of Everett, WA. Interment was in the family plot in Arlington, NE.