Wilhelm Duren Obituary (1927 - 2014)

Wilhelm was born on July 7, 1927 to a Dutch man and native Indonesian woman in the beautiful city of Jakarta, Indonesia (Dutch East Indies). He is number 11 out of 12 children, with one sister and one brother who still live in San Diego, California. While his mother was keeping the home fires burning, his father, a cartographer, would frequently travel. Life in Indonesia was carefree and comfortable, until the 1940's, Indonesia was occupied by the Japanese Army and he was interned in a concentration camp during WWII. He was fortunate to stay with his mother and sisters during the war and learned to cook not only as a necessity but as a means to escape life in a camp. Surviving the camps, he immediately left for Holland, were most of his family settled in Utrecht. Shortly after, he enlisted in the Merchant Marines and sailed through many of the ports in the Indian Ocean and some of the Pacific Ocean. One of his voyages brought him to America where he decided it was a good place to start a new beginning. He immigrated to United States in 1956. On a return trip to Holland, Wilhelm met his wife of 45 years, Linda Van Rossum. He came back to America and settled in San Diego, California to begin searching for employment. He met a man named Rinse Lubach, who owned Lubach's Restaurant on the San Diego waterfront. Wilhelm began working as a chef, and cooked for many celebrities, including Cary Grant, Bob Hope, and the Pope. During the day, he worked for Solar Turbines as a lead structures packaging mechanic. Working with precision tools and aligning generator units, he led many training classes to new employees. After 38 years, he retired in 1995 and moved from San Diego to Tucson in 1996. Outside of his love of cooking, his other hobby was jogging. He ran many local marathons over the period of several years, including San Diego's premier event, the Mission Bay Marathon. Often times, he would often ask his wife to stop the car on their way home from somewhere, and just jog the rest of the way to their destination. Today, you see him primarily with his daughter Roxanne. His other daughter Debbie and son Frank still live in Southern California. He speaks several languages and is fluent in Dutch, Bahasa (Indonesian), and English. I am very proud of my father as he has overcome tremendous obstacles and still has a positive outlook. My dad always pictured being active in his older years. He planned his retirement to be full with running many more marathons, traveling, and spending time with his family. Now, at the age of 82, his running is limited to as fast as he can get around with his walker, his travels are to the many doctor appointments, and he gets plenty of family time as he lives with me, my husband, our youngest son, Treavor, and our 4 cats, Hank, Abigail, Maxie and Tracy.