Philip Jay Van Huis, 84, of Holland, passed away on the evening of October 20, 2026, the day he and his beloved wife, Mary Ann, marked 49 years of marriage.
Phil’s life was full of the unexpected. He was a quiet boy who never felt he fit in at school, a man with no college degree who spent his career in technical engineering, eventually building a business. And though he never had children of his own, he left this world as the beloved patriarch of a large family.
Phil was born on New Year’s Eve, 1941, and grew up in Holland, Michigan, the son of John Van Huis and Marie Ver Wys, a proud native of the Netherlands. In 1948, when Phil was six, his mother pulled him out of kindergarten for a five-month journey back to her homeland, less than three years after the war had ended, to check on the relatives who had lived through it. He walked among bombed-out buildings, saw ships still rusting in the harbor, and came home that June speaking fluent Dutch. He kept a few small keepsakes he had pulled from the rubble for the rest of his life.
By his own account, Phil was a “wall flower” at Holland High School. His real passion was electronics, years before it was taught in school; today, he admitted, they would have called him a nerd. He never forgot the few teachers who made learning come alive, and decades later he took a night class in American history just for the fun of it. His mother made sure his summers were full (“Idle hands are the devil’s tools,” she liked to say), so he picked blueberries, did yard work around the neighborhood, and kept up the grounds and cars at the Ver Lee–Geenen Funeral Home across the street, where Mr. Geenen trusted him to keep his own hours. “That’s something that gives you a good feeling inside,” Phil wrote.
In September 1960, a few days after Labor Day, Phil left Holland for the U.S. Air Force, hoping to study electronics. He didn’t have enough high school math to qualify, so he prayed for radar school instead. He was assigned to the SAGE air defense system, where he was introduced to what he called “a new technology that would be the way of the future. COMPUTERS.” He served until June 1964, and those four years gave him the sense of belonging he had never found in school.
After his discharge, Phil worked factory jobs in Grand Rapids and Holland while watching for something better. In 1965 he answered an ad from Buss Machine Works for someone to put engineering drawings on microfilm, hoping to get his foot in the door. A senior electrical engineer took him under his wing, and the die-casting industry became his life’s work.
Without an engineering degree, Phil went on to Peterson Associated Engineers and then Ex-Cell-O Micromatic, where he became a controls engineer, working with the programmable controllers that operated die-casting machines. He then helped create three companies, Prime Industries of West Michigan, Cardinal Technical Services, and later Cardinal Machine Services, named for his favorite bird, eventually becoming its sole owner. It was his proudest professional achievement. He ran it the way he lived, asking of every decision, “What is the right way?” He insisted that a real person always answer every phone call, and he helped his employees pay for classes, because “Education does not cost; it pays!”
On October 20, 1977, Phil married Mary Ann, and with her came three boys: Tom, Eric, and Dan. When he began writing down his memories in 1999, he explained it was because “maybe someday one or more of my step-kids may be interested in how my life went.” They were, and much of this story comes from those pages.
In retirement, Phil had a passion for amateur (ham) radio. Under his call sign, K8PVH, he was an active member of the Holland Area Amateur Radio Club, where he volunteered in many capacities for both the club and Ottawa County.
The quiet boy who never felt he belonged became the center of a family that grew to include six grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and a great-great-granddaughter, all of whom he loved deeply.
Phil is survived by his wife of 49 years, Mary Ann; his sons Eric (Christy) Matthews and Dan (Amanda) Matthews; his grandchildren Shannon, Alyssa, Ashley, Mary, Chloe, and Laura; his great-grandchildren Hailey, Taylor, and Alexzya; his great-great-granddaughter, Saige; and many nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by their son Tom; his parents; his sisters, Louise, Joan, Cora, and Esther; and his brother, John.
A Memorial Visitation will be held on Friday, October 30, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm, at the Dykstra Funeral Home – Mulder Chapel, 188 West 32nd Street, Holland.
Memorial contributions may be given to a charity of your choice.
Professional service entrusted to the Mulder Chapel.
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