Obituary of Pieter Adrianus Van de Graaf

Pieter Adrianus van de Graaf, a retired Marine Superintendent with Ocean Drilling & Exploration Company (ODECO), died peacefully in his sleep on Thursday, February 3, 2022, at Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. He was 94 years old. Mr. van de Graaf was born in Amsterdam on March 19, 1927. He lived through the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands and later graduated from the Maritime College. He was a Merchant Marine veteran and a Master Mariner, as well as a navigator and instructor for KLM airlines. Pieter was a dedicated family man who brought his family to the United States in 1965, sponsored by a family in Oklahoma City, and eventually landed in Metairie, Louisiana, where he was employed by ODECO. He and his wife moved to Arvada, Colorado, in October of 2000 and he has lived here since. He was a loving individual that enjoyed gardening, woodwork and restoring antique furniture and was a multi-talented individual that could fix anything. He especially enjoyed the art his wife created. He was preceded in death by his wife Catharina van de Graaf, his siblings Marieke Borgmeijer and Willem van de Graaf, and is survived by his children, Pieter, Hugo, and Carla, their spouses, Amy, Patty and Chuck, along with ten grandchildren. Services will be held on February 21, 2022 at 11:00 a.m at Aspen Mortuaries in Arvada, 6370 Union St, Arvada, CO, 80004.