Henry “Hank” Dykstal was known for his skill on the golf course, his love of an afternoon martini, and his attachment to God, country, and family. He died on June 16, 2023, in Palm Harbor, FL, after a brief illness.

“If you ain’t Dutch, you ain’t much!” Henry used to joke. He was born on December 13, 1927, in Schiedam, the Netherlands to William and Marie (nee Kuypers), who met when William was stationed on the Dutch border near Nijmegen during World War I. William and Marie emigrated to Detroit, MI, in 1929, when Henry was two. Despite arriving at the beginning of the Depression, William landed a job at Borden Dairy in Detroit, and worked there until his retirement.

Even more than an ethnic identity, Henry valued his family’s assimilation into American society. He became an altar server and a Boy Scout, and graduated from De La Salle High School in Detroit in 1945. After graduation he enlisted in the Army, earning distinction as a WWII veteran. That was the first of his two stints in the service. Always self-sufficient, he paid his way through the University of Michigan by joining ROTC, and entered the service again as a lieutenant.

These early adult years produced two of Henry’s happiest accomplishments. In the Army, he became a paratrooper, regaling friends and family decades later with his stories about jumping out of airplanes. At Michigan, his strong tenor voice landed him a place in the Glee Club, and served as prelude to a lifetime of choir singing and amateur conducting.

At a listening party during a University of Michigan football game, Henry met the woman who would become the cornerstone of his life: Virginia Oakes, a New Jersey native, who had just moved to Ann Arbor to assume a nursing career. Together, first in Detroit then in Madison, WI, they raised five children, succeeded in challenging careers (Henry retired as Vice President of the Credit Union National

Association – CUNA), and traveled the world. They moved to Palm Harbor in the early 1990s, where they stayed active playing golf and biking, attending plays and concerts, and volunteering at church and in the community. Henry and Virginia were married for 67 years, until her death in 2019.

Henry was remarkably vigorous until the last year or so of his life, so much so that his nickname around the neighborhood was “Hammerin’ Hank.” He could beat you at racquetball well into his eighties, and none of his children ever outdueled him on the golf course. He was well-informed about current events and delivered his many opinions with authority. He made friends easily. His lively personality and what Ginny would call his joie de vivre made him eminently likeable.

Henry is survived by son, David (Ann Swatek); daughter, Laura Dykstal Rose (Steven Rose); son, Timothy (Caroline Burke); son, James (Marcy Hanna); and son, John (Amy Kamerzell); grandchildren: Joseph (Mandy Hang) and Laura Dykstal; William, Timothy, and Abigail Rose; Henry and Charles Burke Dykstal; Nicholas and Jonathan Dykstal; and Kaylee and Aidan Dykstal; and great-grandchildren: Aydrien Dykstal and Athena Simmermon. Also sensing his loss are the children of his brother, Cornelius, who preceded him in death, and cousins in the Netherlands.

A funeral mass will be said at Saint Ignatius Catholic Church, 715 E. Orange St., Tarpon Springs, FL 34689, at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 24, 2023, with a luncheon reception following at Saint Mark Village, 2655 Nebraska Avenue, Palm Harbor, FL, 34684. There will be a memorial service and interment held in Madison, WI, at a later date.

Memorials can be sent to Brooker Creek Preserve, 3940 Keystone Road, Tarpon Springs, FL, 34688.