Albert Willem Struyvenberg

Albert Willem Struyvenberg was born in Rotterdam, Holland on October 10, 1920, and passed away peacefully on August 29, 2011, after leading a full and fascinating life that spanned three continents. As a young man in his 20’s, he studied the violin, managed a coal yard in Rotterdam, was a sea captain, and took part in the Dutch Resistance during the Nazi occupation. After the war, tiring of Holland’s rain and gloom, he took a job with a Dutch trading firm in Singapore during the time of the Malayan Emergency’s guerilla war. After a several years as a bachelor, he met the love of his life, Barbara Hassbach, while they were both vacationing in Taormina, Italy. After a storybook romance, carried out via telegrams and letters, Barbara travelled to Singapore from Germany and they married there. They both loved the climate and exoticism of the tropics, and three years later, when Al’s company wanted to transfer him back to Holland, they took the bold step of immigrating to the United States instead. First in Portland, Oregon and then in Seattle, Al was a successful businessman and built up his company, Interwood, into a thriving, well respected, import and export firm that traded mainly with the Far East. During their years in Portland and later on Mercer Island in Seattle, Al and Barbara raised their family in a succession of beautiful homes, travelled, and enjoyed lives blessed with good fortune and love, good health and happiness. When Al retired, they moved to Sisters, Oregon. There they enjoyed many more fine years; hiking, traveling – particularly to Hawaii – and pursuing their respective interests. Al was a great lover of classical music and was always intellectually engaged and aware to the very end of his life. The study of investment strategy remained his passion however, and he spent many years devising technical commodity trading methods. We will sorely miss his immense optimism, good humor, love of life and genuine interest in everyone he met. Al was truly one of a kind. His wife, Barbara, passed away in January of this year and we hope that they are once again reunited. He is survived by his children: Eva, and her son Max; Peter, and his wife Robin and daughter Sarah; and Anne, her husband Kirk, and their children Sean and Cara. Remembrances may be made to a charity of choice.

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