McNair, Marijke Koopmans

Marijke Koopmans McNair, 76, of Blacksburg, passed away on Saturday, October 31, 2015 after suffering a stroke. She was preceded in death by her father, Jan Albert Koopmans; and her mother, Petronella Brusselars Koopmans.

She is survived by her husband of 55 years, Dr. Harold McNair; daughter and son-in-law, Saskia McNair Eng (Thomas) of Denver, Colo.; son and daughter-in-law, Erik (Stefani) McNair of Oakton, Va.; son, Joshua McNair of Lansing, Mich.; and sister, Jikke Koopmans, who lives in Germany. She will be dearly missed by her grandchildren, Alexa and Ian McNair.

Marijke was born in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, in 1939. She was an avid field hockey player and cycled to school every day while studying classic and modern languages at the Vossius Gymnasium (high school) in Amsterdam. After graduation, she traveled to London to work as an Au Pair and to perfect her English. Marijke met Harold in 1959 at the Technical University in Eindhoven, where he was on a Fulbright Scholarship in Chemistry from the United States. They were married in The Netherlands on September 21, 1960 and lived there for the next four years. They moved to the United States living in Linden, New Jersey and Berkeley, California, before eventually settling down in Blacksburg, Virginia in 1968 when Harold accepted a position as an Associate Professor with the Department of Chemistry at Virginia Tech.

Marijke was very linguistic and fluent in several languages. She received an undergraduate degree in Spanish and French at Virginia Tech at the age of 36, and in her mid-fifties completed a rigorous Teaching English as a Foreign Language program at Georgetown University. She loved teaching and taught English as a Second Language at the Virginia Tech Foreign Language Institute, and enjoyed taking her students out for coffee and conversation. At home, gardening, quilting, and designing clothes were her passion. She was very active and loved being outdoors. A great story teller and prolific writer, Marijke’s letters will be sorely missed by friends and loved ones. But it was the simple things in life; her family and grandchildren, nature, and good music that brought her the most happiness.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Beans and Rice, Inc. (www.beansandrice.org), a local organization providing a variety of services to low-to-moderate income families in the New River Valley Community.

Visitation will be from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday, November 7, 2015 at the McCoy Funeral Home in Blacksburg, Virginia. The family will hold a private burial on Sunday.