GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Helen DeVos, the wife of a West Michigan business giant and the woman who helped give Grand Rapids one of the nation’s premier children’s hospitals, has died at the age of 90.
A statement from family said she died Wednesday.
She leaves behind her husband, Amway co-founder Rich DeVos; their four children; 16 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
“While we grieve her passing, we rejoice in her new life in heaven and are grateful for the countless ways she blessed our lives. We are comforted in knowing that she was welcomed home into the loving arms of Jesus,” the DeVos family said in a statement released early Thursday. “We will never forget her unfailing love, strength and devotion that were truly the heart of our family.”
Formerly Helen Van Wesep, she was born in 1927. She attended Frankfort High School near Traverse City before moving to Grand Rapids, where she graduated from Calvin College with a Bachelor of Arts degree.
She married Rich DeVos in 1953 and the pair raised three sons and a daughter, all of whom became involved in the operation of Amway.
Helen DeVos was known as a lover of the arts. She was a devoted patron of the Grand Rapids Symphony, joining its board of directors in 1972 as a lifetime member and supporting the organization through various fundraising efforts. She also served on the board of directors for the St. Cecilia Music Center.
She and her husband gave to countless charities and organizations.
But her name is perhaps most recognizable because it adorns the name of Grand Rapids’ children hospital.
In 1993, the DeVoses donated $5 million to help open the Helen DeVos Women and Children’s Medical Center, part of Butterworth Hospital. Twelve years later, the couple unveiled plans for a new, stand-alone children’s hospital.
“I’m really proud and as well as really humbled to have my name on this hospital,” Helen DeVos said in 2005 when the hospital was announced. “The care has always been the best. I don’t know how you make the best better, but I’m going to stick around and find out and I hope you do, too.”