Details

Collection Summary
Collection: FND001 - SHSND Foundation - North Dakota Heritage Family Memorial Program
Series: Tribute
Folder: DIG
Item: 271304
Title: Michael Van Dyke
Date: 11/27/1957-8/29/2024
Creator:
Inscription/Marks: 11/27/1957
Summary: Michael Willard Van Dyke, 66, of Upton, WY, formerly of Watford City, ND, passed away August 29, 2024, after unexpected health complications. His funeral was held September 14, 2024, where he was buried at the Good Hope Cemetery north of Keene, ND. Michael was born on November 27, 1957, to Merline and Gloria Van Dyke in Fargo, ND. When Michael was 11, he moved with his family to Lakewood, CO, where he grew up and resided for the majority of his life. He attended Bear Creek High School where he was a state champion wrestler and an Eagle Scout. After graduating, he began his working career in the construction industry, working on residential and large-scale commercial projects. He later transitioned to land surveying and engineering for the family company, Van Dyke Engineering & Surveying, Inc. Toward the end of his professional career, Michael formed Thunderclouds, LLC where he provided design, CAD, and surveying services. After retiring, Michael moved from Colorado to the small town of Upton, WY, where he purchased a small acreage complete with a shop and a lift for all his hobby and project vehicles. He had three children: Shayanna Waters, Skyler Van Dyke and Aubrey Van Dyke. His hobbies included Harley Davidson motorcycles, muscle cars (especially Corvettes and old GM muscle), old trucks, coin collecting, classic rock music, and always keeping more than a few open projects. During his younger years, he was an avid outdoor enthusiast and spent many weekends camping with his kids and hunting elk in the southern mountains of Colorado. Everywhere he went he was accompanied by his best friend, Taz, who was a rescue puppy and a loyal companion for 14 years. He immensely enjoyed spending time with his friends and family. He would road trip on a regular basis to visit them and spend multiple hours a week on the phone chatting about life with his loved ones. He was always mechanically inclined. He could figure out the inside workings of everything he touched to rebuild it and have it running the way it should. He was the family go to for anything that ever needed fixed. He was a gearhead at heart and would often be heard saying, “Drive it like you stole it, and use all the road!” He loved taking annual trips to Daytona Bike Week and burning gas in anything that had an engine. He is survived by his parents, Merline and Gloria Van Dyke; younger brother, Greg Van Dyke; and his children, Shayanna, Skyler and Aubrey. He is also survived by countless cousins and relatives. Michael was preceded in death by an older brother, Jesse Van Dyke, and a younger brother, Timothy Van Dyke.
Red ID: FND_I_78794 Image ID: 515066 Image Notes: FND00 271304

Collection: FND001 Digitized Images from Collection
Title: SHSND Foundation - North Dakota Heritage Family Memorial Program
Date: -

Summary: The North Dakota Heritage Family Memorial Program is sponsored by the North Dakota Funeral Directors Association. The life stories of deceased North Dakotans are featured in an archvied collection. Current partners in the project are Eastgate Funeral & Cremation Services, Bismarck Evans Funeral Homes, Carrington and New Rockford Everson-Coughlin Funeral Home, Williston Fulkerson Funeral Home, Tioga Fulkerson Funeral Home, Watford City Fulkerson Stevenson Funeral Home, Williston Nero Funeral Home, Bottineau Parkway Funeral Service, Bismarck Springan Stevenson Funeral Home, Stanley Stevenson Funeral Home, Dickinson These funeral homes provide recent obituaries to the Foundation, where staff and volunteers format, edit and archive each memorial. The memorials are posted, and copies are sent to the family for their input and approval. The listing currently features more than 13,000 memorials, and is constantly updated as new memorials and histories are received.

Enter a subject or term in one or both of the “Search” boxes.

  • “Item Detail” searches the Title, Creator and Summary fields of all item-level records.
  • “Collection Number” searches the Collection Number field only and requires an exact match.

The “DETAILS” button provides additional information about an item, as well as the following options:

  • “Collection Summary” details the contents of the entire collection in which the selected item is located.
  • You can print the image and its corresponding details by selecting “Print".
  • “Digitized Images from the Collection” returns a list of all digitized items within that collection (available from the “Collection Summary” screen).

Click on image to expand/zoom the image view.

“Photobook home” takes you back to the main Photobook page where you can start a new search.

“Featured Collections” showcases new and/or popular collections and the digitized images within those collections.

Information on how to order copies is located here.

The collections preserved in the North Dakota State Archives include over a million images. Only a small percentage of these images have been digitized. This photo gallery provides a preview of the images that have been digitized.

For more information on the non-digitized images, please refer to the finding aids found on our website at history.nd.gov, or ask a member of our reference staff for assistance.