Jan Denis Mulder

Jan Denis Mulder

Jan Denis Mulder died in the evening of Monday, May 16, 2016, after a lengthy battle with metastatic prostate cancer.

He was born in Java, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) on Sept. 30, 1928, and was the youngest of five — three brothers and one sister.

In 1938, the family moved to The Hague, The Netherlands. In May 1940, Germany invaded the country, starting a horrific five-year occupation. Just prior to the end of the war, almost everything the family owned was lost in a “friendly fire” aerial bombardment by the British Royal Air Force.

Jan immigrated to the US in 1953. His first job was that of a court reporter in Philadelphia, Penn. In 1955, he moved to San Francisco, Calif., which marked the beginning of a 37-year career as a ship’s purser with American President Lines. Before retiring as senior purser in the fleet, he had sailed on a variety of ships to a great number of countries and circumnavigated the globe 18 times.

Jan and his partner of 44 years, Cleveland, also a marine staff officer, settled down in Northern California on a small 80-acre ranch where they built their first home. In 1988, they bought a home on Whidbey Island where they have lived ever since.

Jan is survived by Cleveland, his sister Meta in Switzerland, brother Denis, and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins in The Netherlands.

A celebration of Jan’s life will take place at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 4th, 2016 at St. Augustine’s-in-the-Woods Episcopal Church. The church is located at 5217 Honeymoon Bay Road in Freeland. In lieu of flowers the family suggests that a donation be made in Jan’s memory to Ryan’s House (a shelter for homeless youth on Whidbey Island), P. O. Box 551, Langley, WA 98260-0551.