Nick (James Nicholas) Van Driel

Ziplines, rock climbing, catapults - bikes, kites, kayaks, camping - hunting (pheasant, deer, bear), fishing, archery - Nick Van Driel was Mr. Adventure!

Nick (James Nicholas) Van Driel was born on December 9, 1945, to Mary Kathryn Blaser Van Driel and Carl E. Van Driel in Des Moines, Iowa. He attended Dowling High School and achieved his Eagle Scout award before enrolling at Iowa State University and joining Beta Theta Pi fraternity in 1963. He left school in February of 1965 to enlist in the U.S. Navy, eventually volunteering for shore duty at Nha Be, Vietnam where he led the electronics Night Crew that repaired radars and radios on the Patrol Boats and in the Tactical Operations Center. He was awarded a field promotion to E-5 rank because of his performance in maintaining base electronic readiness. He extended his tour for six months and left Vietnam in September 1968. Nick returned to Iowa State and continued his undergraduate program in geology. With a B.S. in Geology, he was commissioned as an Ensign in the U.S. Navy Reserve Intelligence Program.

Nick and Dee Anne Thorp married on May 29, 1971, in her hometown of Coon Rapids, Iowa. They spent the summer at Lake Okoboji where he was a Senior Diving Instructor of SCUBA diving. He returned to ISU where he completed a master’s program and a thesis “Computer Mapping for Story County Iowa.” He graduated from ISU in January 1974 with an M.S. in Geology and entered employment with the U.S. Geological Survey at their headquarters in Reston, Va., as a geologist and computer mapping specialist. He managed a project designed to provide geologic information to local county government planners through a computer mapping program. His subsequent assignments in Reston included Information Systems Coordinator, Deputy Chief of Publications, and Chief of the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Laboratory. While living in Reston, Nick continued his Navy Reserve career in a number of Reserve Intelligence Units in the Washington, D.C. area. He retired as Commander in June 1996, after his move to Sioux Falls.

In September 1994, he and his family relocated to Sioux Falls, S.D., where Nick became the Research Program Manager at the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. As part of the Landsat team, Nick was appointed Program Manager of the Land Cover Program at EROS and continued to lead it until his retirement in June 2006. Nick and Dee made another move, to Madison, Wis., in July 2006 where he enjoyed bicycle riding, hunting, rock climbing, kayaking, fishing, woodworking, and archery. He found a small group of contemporaries who enjoyed building and shooting recurve bows weekly. Over the years, he owned over 100 bows, many of them handmade! His other hobby-group sprang from pheasant-hunting and climbing near Sioux Falls and Madison, S.D., hosted by Dan and Sharon Rykhus and sons. They were like an extended family to him.

Nick loved sharing his hobbies of biking, climbing, and camping with his boys: Zack (father of Elina, age 15, and Sam, age 9), Nick and Luke. The two older guys live in the Madison, Wis., area, while Luke works in the space industry near Boulder, Colo. The two grandchildren also flourished from outings and adventures with their grandfather.

On November 4, 2024, surrounded by his family, Nick lost his two-year battle with metastatic cancer - but he rocked a killer mustache to the end! He is survived by Dee, his wife of 53 years; the three sons and two grandchildren; and his sister, Margaret Anne Van Driel, of Middleburg, Va.

No memorial or visitation services are planned. Online condolences may be made at www.gundersonfh.com.

Gunderson Fitchburg

Funeral & Cremation Care

2950 Chapel Valley Road

(608) 442-5002