Barbara Jean Van Noord died on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, in her home in Amherst, MA. She was a victim of cancer. Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on April 21, 1947, she was one of four siblings in a devoted Christian Reformed family of Dutch heritage. Her parents were Gelmer A. Van Noord, M.D., and Cornelia (Kelly) Van Wyk. Her siblings are Robert Van Noord, Ellen Nast, and Mary Ellens. After graduating from South Christian High School in Cutlerville, Michigan, Barbara attended Calvin College and the University of Michigan, where she received a BA in English literature. She took graduate courses at the University, where she received three Hopwood awards for creative writing, an unusual distinction. Years later, she achieved a Masters in Social Work at Smith College. Barbara’s education, her personal charm and intellectual brilliance, and her tender spirit, were combined in a life of service to her family, her friends, and her psychiatric clients.

She became a talented psychiatric social worker in Amherst, leading and creating several departments during her career. She was a founding member of the Feminist Counseling Collective, a groundbreaking group of women who challenged the prevailing practice within psychiatric analysis. A well published poet of wide regard, her book, The Three Hands of God, presents a powerful analysis of the human condition set within vibrant and shifting nature imagery. In addition, she composed many Christmas poems which originally were written as holiday cards. These cards, and many others, included also her original photographs, digitally manipulated on the computer. They provided a seasonal delight for her family and friends. These cards and others, widely sought by friends and family, together with her poetry, provide testament to her striking imagination, her theological acumen, and a distinctive sense of humor. In addition, Barbara composed a series of poems known as Mary Midrash, a blending of Jewish biblical analysis with inventive stories concerning the Virgin Mary. These are read annually in several churches around the USA and have been published in secular and Catholic journals. She has also authored a delightful memoir, as yet unpublished, of her early years in the setting of Pine Rest Christian Hospital, a 600 bed Christian psychiatric institution headed at that time by her father, a psychiatrist. Pine Rest, which flourishes still, was a trend setting psychiatric institute whose humane and open approach to its patients was at the time unusual.

Barbara was a strong woman who radiated kindness and trust. She was a generous friend and lived a life filled with creative works, gardening, and time with her talented children and grandchildren. She was devoted to her husband and children, who miss her sorely. She led a distinctive spiritual life, and was proud of her Dutch heritage, to which she, with humor, ascribed her self-styled “stubbornness,” as she termed it.

Barbara’s beloved husband, Stephen Gottlieb, lives in Amherst. Barbara’s daughter, Kelly (Bosma) Rhodes, lives in Silver Spring, MD, with her husband Blaise Rhodes, and their three children, Erin, Anna, and Sam. Steve’s daughter, Allie Holly-Gottlieb, lives in San Francisco, CA, with her husband Edward Sidawi, and their two sons, Theo and Milo. Both Kelly and Allie spent precious time with Barbara during her final weeks.

Our family wishes to thank the nurses, physicians, and other staff at Mass General Cancer Center, the VNA, and Hospice, all of the Cooley Dickinson Hospital, for their superb and highly integrated care for both Barbara and Steve during the past 4 months.