Candice Jean Roeder

Candice Jean Dreger Roeder passed away peacefully on May 11, 2022, following a tragically short battle with ALS. She was the youngest of three daughters, born to Nila Irene (Bluemly) Dreger and Richard Wayne Dreger on December 26, 1954, in East Grand Rapids, MI.

Candice fell in love with Jerry (Gerald) DeRuiter and they married in 1975.  Following Jeremy's birth in 1979, she decided to stay at home and make being a mom her full-time job.  Jonathan followed in 1982.  She loved her boys her whole life, though the marriage with Jerry lasted until 1987.

In the wake of the divorce, Candice found herself, her strength (in part due to a successful career at Olsten), and ultimately, the love of her life, Ron Roeder.  They were married in 1990 in the house on Wall Lake in Delton that Ron had bought, as it happened, on the opposite side of a cove where her sister Gretchen (GiGi or Kelly, depending on your acquaintance with her) lived with her husband and son.

After the move, what began as a hobby--taking classes in pottery at the Kalamazoo Institute of Art--became a career.  Candice's love of learning led her to master multiple different specialized techniques, contributing to her success in building sales of Shallow Cove Pottery across multiple galleries all over Michigan as well as becoming an instructor at the KIA.  Ron, a salesman by trade, found it easy to pitch her work.  Candice gave up pottery in the wake of Ron's death in 2012.

Despite the grief of Ron's passing, she relished in her self-sufficiency, tackling project after project around the house, which led to volunteering for Habit for Humanity.  Candice also reinvested in different forms of art with special attention to photography and graphic design, both of which she lent through continued volunteerism to the Thornapple Art Council and the Kellogg Manor House.

She is preceded in death by her parents, her sister Gretchen (Keith) Carmen, and her husband Ron Roeder. She is survived by her sister Diane (Gregory) Penix and sons Jeremy (Megan) DeRuiter and Jonathan (Melissa) DeRuiter.

A celebration of Candice's life will be held at Girrbach Funeral Home at 4:00 pm on Saturday, May 21, 2022 with a visitation one hour prior.  The service will be livestreamed on the Girrbach Funeral Home Facebook page.  In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to organizations to which Candice donated her time: the Kalamazoo Institute of Art ( https://kiarts.org/join-give/give/annual-fund/ ), Kalamazoo Habitat for Humanity ( https://give.habitatkalamazoo.org/checkout/14532 ), or the Kellogg Manor House ( https://givingto.msu.edu/gift/index.cfm?SID=586 ). Services provided by Girrbach Funeral Home. To leave online condolences visit www.girrbachfuneralhome.net .