• When: 11:30 a.m. Nov. 22
• Where: Vancouver First Church of God (King’s Way), 3300 N.E. 78th St.
Open mic: Sherry Van Cleve said the reception will feature plenty of time for friends and fans to share their memories of “Mr. Hazel Dell.”
Bud Van Cleve, an inexhaustible community activist whose efforts over the last couple of decades earned him the nickname “Mayor of Hazel Dell,” died on Nov. 5 at age 84.
Despite declining health for the last few years, the man of a million meetings was still attending them regularly, according to his wife of 44 years. Sherry Van Cleve said Bud’s death from a hemorrhagic stroke was “totally unexpected. He’d had a great week. He’d been to meetings. He went out with his daughter. The night before he died he wanted to hear all the election results.”
“He was still involved in everything,” Sherry said. “He was still president of the Northeast Hazel Dell Neighborhood Association. He was working on the annual Christmas party — that was his baby. He started it with money out of his own pocket, 17 years ago.”
The welfare of needy children and families was her husband’s real passion in life, Sherry said. That’s because Ballard Eugene Van Cleve grew up “impoverished” in Arkansas, she said.
“His father passed away when he was very young and he was raised by a single mom. He sold magazines when he was a boy. He worked in grocery stores. During the war, they really didn’t have anything except their house,” she said.
He’d been dealing with that limp and walking with that signature cane since childhood, Sherry added, but the cause wasn’t anything too tragic or glamorous: “He got run over by a bus. There were a bunch of kids screwing around and he got shoved in the street.”
Van Cleve went to work for the Brown Shoe Company of St. Louis. He stayed on the road for decades, he told The Columbian in earlier interviews, as a scout and troubleshooter for Brown franchises all over the nation.
“I trained myself to look for issues,” he said during an interview in 2006. “I developed the ability to investigate situations and make decisions away from the company.”
It must have been excellent training for what became his true life’s work, which actually began upon his retirement in 1994: investigating and troubleshooting issues in his adopted “hometown,” Hazel Dell — which isn’t a town at all but a network of neighborhoods just north of the city of Vancouver.
“If God made a prettier place,” he thought about Hazel Dell, “he kept it to himself.” Once Van Cleve came off the road after all those years, he told The Columbian, “I came to the conclusion that I didn’t know anybody in my hometown. I knew more people in Denver or Anchorage than I knew right here.”
He remedied that in a big way. Van Cleve started getting elected president of the Northeast Hazel Dell Neighborhood Association in 1999, and just never stopped. According to a statement from Clark County, his record of service included “more than 60 local boards, committees, councils and organizations working on topics ranging from access to public places for people with disabilities, land use planning, the 78th Street Heritage Farm, and parks.” He was also an “early and active advocate” for the county’s Juvenile Restorative Justice Program, which holds young offenders accountable and gives them opportunities for “positive personal change.”
His favorite motto: “You don’t have to move to live in a better neighborhood.”
All of which led The Columbian in 2006 to ask him the obvious question: Didn’t he want to run for higher elected office than neighborhood association board?
“Oh God no,” he said. “I have no interest in politics.”
Children and community
Before he met Sherry, Van Cleve was already married and divorced and was the father of five. He met Sherry on a blind date in Bend, Ore., where her friend had a shoe store, and they settled in a modest ranch home in Northeast 68th Street in 1975. They had three children of their own, Sherry said, plus many foster children over the years.
“Yeah, we didn’t have enough of our own,” Sherry laughed. Their home also served as a “crisis house” for children who needed a quick escape from a dangerous situation, she said.
“It was because of family and children, that was the most important thing to him,” she said.
Not everything went Van Cleve’s way. One of his pet projects was pushing Clark County government to add beauty and safety to Northeast Highway 99, Hazel Dell’s unattractive and accident-prone commercial strip. There have been many meetings on that topic over many years, but not a lot has actually gotten done.
But that annual holiday children’s party has grown from something that Van Cleve began with a few bucks of his own into a celebrated event that reliably draws nearly 1,000 neighborhood children to Sarah J. Anderson Elementary School. These are mostly low-income kids who likely wouldn’t get to enjoy much holiday cheer, but thanks to Van Cleve and the co-sponsors of the event, each one gets a wrapped Christmas present, a visit with Santa and a food box — as well as plenty more fun and games.
This year’s party is set for the evening of Dec. 18 at Sarah J. Anderson school, 2215 N.E. 104th St.
Van Cleve was nominated for Clark County’s First Citizen award in 2008 by the entire Board of Clark County Commissioners. He didn’t win it, but their nomination statement — and others — speak to just how respected Van Cleve was.
“We believe his spirit, citizenship, dedication and service to the community are unequalled,” they wrote. “Bud is responsible, directly and indirectly, for many positive changes in the N.E. Hazel Dell neighborhood and beyond. `Retired’ is not a word that applies to Bud Van Cleve. In fact, an award might be given to Bud for his sheer stamina and the astonishing number of projects he in involved with.”
“Bud is not only a community leader,” wrote Cmdr. Mike Cooke of the Clark County’s Sheriff’s Office, “he is also a role model, a mentor, and a First Citizen in the hearts of all who know him.”
The next year, 2009, the county commissioners recognized Van Cleve with a Spirit of Clark County award.
“He was a great man who was really dedicated to making his neighborhood and his community a better place to live,” said Doug Ballou, who worked closely with Van Cleve across many years to lead the Northeast Hazel Dell neighborhood group. “He was a dear friend of mine and he’ll be missed dearly.”
Sherry, who said she tended to “stay in the background” while her husband was busy being mayor of Hazel Dell, added that she was always just a bit bemused by his fame and importance.
“He was just my husband,” she said. “It’s a little bit different when you’re just living at home.” She said she was amazed to have 192 hits pop up when she Googled his name.
Van Cleve is survived by three children with Sherry; four children from his first marriage (one preceded him in death); and seven grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers the family has asked that donations be made in memory of Van Cleve to the Hazel Dell Youth Party; make out checks to Three Creeks Community Partners; or to Boys & Girls Clubs of Vancouver (checks to the Clinton and Gloria John Boys & Girls Club, 409 N.E. Anderson Road Vancouver, 98665).
