Devant "Van" C Husz's Obituary
Devant “Van” C Husz, 73, died October 31, 2022, in Fort Myers, FL, from complications of Lewy Body dementia. He had been under Hope Hospice home care and died at home with his wife, Linda, by his side. Van was born in Sebring, FL, on November 20, 1948, son of Billie (nee Bauknight) and Devant C Griffin, Sr. After his parents divorced when he was young, he moved with his family to Fort Myers where he was raised. He was then adopted by his step-dad, John A. Husz, Jr. whom he considered his father from a young age, and he took the Husz name. Van is survived by his wife, Linda, daughter, Whitney Husz (Mark), of N. C., two sisters and one brother and their families, all in Florida, a special aunt and her family in PA, and many cousins in WI, PA, and FL. On Linda’s side of the family he is survived by several brothers-in-law in FL and AZ, and their families.
He was predeceased by son Darren Husz in October 2017, parents Billie and John Husz, mother-in-law Marion Whitmore, and many aunts, uncles, and cousins.
A reception - celebration of life will be held Dec. 17th, 2022, at 12 noon at their home, 1426 Paloma Dr., Ft. Myers.
Donations can be made to Hope Hospice at Hope Development Dept, 9470 Health Park Cir., Ft. Myers, FL, 33908, or online, or to your favorite charity if so inclined. Contact info: Linda Husz, 1426 Paloma Dr., Ft. Myers, FL, 33901.
Except for a hiccup in Philadelphia during his elementary school years, and when he was in the Navy, Van lived in Fort Myers all his life. Whenever we met another native Floridian, we always joked that the three of us had just tripled the population of native Floridians in the same room together at the same time, because there are so few native Floridians scattered about randomly among the entire population of Florida.
He was raised in Fort Myers Shores and attended Lee Jr. High, and graduated from Fort Myers Sr. High School in 1966 (he was part of the middle generation of three generations of Fort Myers High “Greenies”). He joined the Navy in 1967 and served for four years. He remained in touch with two of his Navy buddies until the day he died. Upon return from the Navy, he enrolled at Edison Jr. College as it was then called (now FSW).
After graduation from Edison, he went to work for FP&L at the power plant on Hwy. 80 for the next 20-21 years. He married Linda (nee Whitmore) on August 9, 1975, and they were married 47 years until his death. They had two children, Darren and Whitney Husz. After working at the power plant, he went to work in 1998 for the USPS at the mail processing plant where he worked until his official retirement in May 2021, however he had stopped working a few months prior while he used up remaining paid leave.
What for fun: He liked making up nick names for people and making games with names. It was his brand of fun. He always noticed clouds in the sky and often commented on how pretty or interesting they were. He was always noticing clouds. We enjoyed the beach, shelling, listening to live music, watching NASA shuttle launches and tracking the ISS, and eating out with family and friends. We ate dinner once a month w/a group of former FP&Lers for about 20+ years, ’til covid took care of that.
Van had a sense of adventure and was usually in for anything suggested. For many years we dearly loved going to Key West, and sightseeing in the Everglades and doing the Everglades Seafood Festival. For years we attended my (Linda’s) family reunion in Virginia, and we loved going to Alaska to see our son, Darren, and we survived the Burning Man Festival in the Nevada desert 3 times, as recently as 5 years ago. We would have kept going and traveling and doing festivals and adventures if not for his dementia which rapidly accelerated after the loss of Darren in 2017.
After Van retired, we used to go thrifting just for something to do because he couldn’t do much more, and we still tried to enjoy eating out with friends.
Van had a very dry, sometimes sarcastic wit. He didn’t talk a lot, but when he did it was often a real zinger and you never saw it coming. He had excellent timing with his one-liners. One of the things that echoes back to me from well-wishers after his passing is how much they enjoyed his sense of humor. Even though he didn’t talk a lot, he was listening and didn’t miss much.
Conversely, if you asked him a simple yes or no question, he could not give you a simple yes or no answer. He was not capable. It was not within him to do so. If I asked him anything, he would find a way to drag out the answer while giving me a non-answer answer, and eventually answering back with another question. That was when he had a lot to say.
He had his favorite TV series and we watched a lot of news. Unlike most people, Van didn’t have hobbies, or tinker with cars, or watch sports, much less have a favorite team, and he didn’t make things for a hobby, or collect things, or read, or do puzzles, or play a musical instrument, and he wasn’t artistic, though he could be quite the handy man at home if need be. The trade off - he was able to spend more time with our children and all their adventures when they were growing up, and for years everything we did and everywhere we went, we did as a family pod.
I never saw him without a beard a single time. That was Van.
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