Jon Wendell Hulstein

Memorial Service Recording

Services for Jon Wendell Hulstein age 52 of Apache Junction, Arizona who died March 4, 2024, at his residence will be held on Saturday, March 23, 2024, at 10:45 am at Memorial Funeral Home with Reverend Roger Voskuil officiating.

Interment will be held prior in Memory Gardens Cemetery of Sioux Center, Iowa.  

Visitation will be held on Saturday, March 23 from 9:45 to 10:45 am with the family present at that time at the Memorial Funeral Home in Sioux Center.

Memorial donations are preferred to Avera Behavioral Health in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Jon Wendell Hulstein was born on November 27, 1971, in Sioux City, Iowa.  He was adopted by Wilmer and Adella Hulstein and became the third adopted child in the family.  His sisters fought over him so much that day that all 5 of them rode in the front seat of the car on the way home from the adoption agency.  He was dearly loved at first sight.

Jon grew up on the farm west of Sioux Center and his love was for the dirt.  Not of the farmland but of the baseball field.  He spent countless hours cheering for the New York Yankees with his grandpa Juffer and they talked baseball often.  He collected baseball cards and comic books.  He gained a love for reading and words because of the comics and would later compose small short stories just for the love of writing them.  He shared only a few of them with very few people.  

He played baseball in high school for Rock Valley High and graduated from there in 1990.  He then tried a few places of higher education but found his soul wandering for other places to live.  He spent some time in California, Arizona, Iowa, Indiana, Florida and finally returning to Arizona about 10 years ago with his girlfriend Tonya Lesher.  He married her on February 8, 2020 and he always exuded what it meant to be a gentleman and how to have a deep loving caring manner with her until she passed away from cancer on February 11, 2024.

Jon was always a good listener and really understood others with mental health problems.  He worked for COPA Health in Mesa, Arizona working his way up to a Program Manager.  His listening ears and the ability to be sympathetic and empathetic to those who suffered from the same disease he and his wife struggled with made him the perfect person for his staff and for COPA’s clientele.  He is already dearly missed by his co-workers who thought so warmly about him.

Jon is survived by his father, Wilmer Hulstein.  Sisters, Anne (Scott) Gray of Sioux Center, Jane Hulstein of Des Moines, Nephews Dustin (Stacey) Vander Waal, Derek Vander Waal of Ankeny, Iowa, Sam Rieken of Carlisle, Iowa, Alexander Gray and niece Michaela Gray of Sioux Center. He also had a great nephew Mason Vander Waal and two great nieces Shaylee and Scarlet Vander Waal all of Ankeny. Along with cousins Denise Mc Laurin, Monica Fehrs, Michelle Hulstein, Rachel Lowe, Dan Juffer, Barb Dubbelde, and Tim Juffer. Uncles, Roland Hulstein of Wellesley, MA and Glen Hulstein of Sioux Center and Aunts, Atty Boyd of Sioux Falls and Wilma Juffer of Sioux Center.

He is preceded in death by his loving wife Tonya Lesher-Hulstein, his mother Adella Hulstein, his Uncle Gerry Juffer, and his grandparents Gerrit & Helen Hulstein and Bill and Jeanette Juffer.

We leave him in the hands of His merciful Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.   1 Peter 1: 3-4