Louis Van Belle

February 09, 1918 - September 02, 2017

Louis Van Belle Obituary (Age 99) Louis Van Belle of Spokane, WA, died at the ripe old age of 99. Louis was born on February 9, 1918 on the family ranch in Bynum, Montana, to Lodewyk Van Belle and Cornelia Josephine (Verlinde) Van Belle. He was the fourth child of six children, the last survivor of his siblings. He married Dora Bradley, who died in 1999. They had four children, two of whom are twins; the eldest son, Jerry Van Belle; second, Dennis Van Belle (who died in 2017); and the twins, Joan Kannegaard and Judy Lewis, all are residents of Spokane. Also surviving Louis are nine grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren, seven great-great-grandchildren, and too-many-to-count nieces and nephews and their families, many living in the Spokane area. His favorite of myriad jobs was working at Boeing Aircraft, during WWII. He put propellers together for B-17 and B-29 bombers and tested them for precision function control by the pilots. Louis was called head man by his crew members, as he trained them in mechanics and tool use in assembling the propellers and other plane parts. Company foremen used him as a troubleshooter whenever a part was not working he would fix it. One example was a bomb bay doors that would not work. Louis figured out a way to operate them so the bombardier could safely do his job. He had clearance to go anywhere in the plant, to be called whenever problems arose. An interesting top secret project he worked on was testing the Nordan Bombsights. He inspected them for accuracy of operation before installation in the bombers. He said plant security guards kept close watch on him on that one! Louis was given extra gas ration stamps for picking up other factory workers each day to and from work. He liked having a car and commuting to Spokane from Seattle on weekends was a real treat with the extra gas. Louis longest job was with Ace Concrete, driving the dump truck handling crushed rock from the crusher which processed gravel being dug and delivered by cable and bucket from the quarry pit on Park Road. He liked being a part of Aces greatest project of providing concrete mix for I-90 east of Coeur d Alene up the mountain with sky bridges over canyons on the way to the Idaho-Montana border. After retiring from Ace with a pension from Teamsters, Louis, who was car-crazy, went into business for himself. He repaired wrecked cars as body and frame man. At the same time, he carried on a house rental business he had started in his twenties, having fourteen rentals at the high point through the years. He was exposed to some very colorful and down-on-their-luck people through his rental and car businesses. He always had a heart for the down-and-outers, and would help those whom others quickly dismissed. Whenever Louis was asked how he was doing, his favorite expression was, Im alive and kickin, and not kickin to be alive!. He had a zest for life that was infectious. He will be remembered most for all the fun times we had together. He will be sorely missed! � To plant a beautiful memorial tree in memory of Louis, please visit our Tree Store. Read more Events SEP 2