by Bob Van Dyk, CEO of Van Dyk Health Care
It all began 
70 years ago, in March 1953.
A 22 year old man named Marvin Van Dyk, (my Dad) along with his young wife, Gertrude, (my Mom) and their new born son Robert (Bob…Me), purchased a 17 bed nursing home on the Franklin Turnpike in Allendale NJ.
It all started when Dad, a tall gangly young man was working as a nurse in a now defunct Osteopathic hospital in Dumont NJ. Upon the urging of some physicians Dad was encouraged to look at purchasing a 17 bed nursing home. They said with his nursing background, his outgoing personality, and love of seniors, it was a perfect fit.
Of course, at 22 years of age Dad didn’t have the money, credit, or wherewithal to purchase anything, especially a nursing home. So he went to his father, Barney Van Dyk, (my Grandfather aka pop) for advice and hopefully his support, financially.
I recall my grandfather telling me he thought it was the worse idea he’d ever heard. That said he wanted to be supportive, so he went with my Dad to look at the nursing home. Dad was so excited. He immediately wanted to make an offer to buy it. The quandary for my grandfather was, how do you appear to be a supportive father without saying NO! this is a bad/dumb idea? The answer soon became clear to my grandfather, make a super low-ball offer knowing the owners would surely turn it down and as Pop so eloquently said, “that will be the end of this crazy idea of buying a nursing home”. The crazy low offer was made and you guessed it…. owners said YES! And that was the beginning of Van Dyk Health Care.
Over the ensuing years, my dad and grandfather purchased two more small 
nursing homes. The second one in Ridgewood which previously housed an old mid-wife hospital. The third was a big old mansion in Towaco, (an unincorporated community within Montville NJ). Upon the purchase of the third home my dad’s brother, Bill, joined his dad and brother in the family business.
It wasn’t long after their third purchase that the men decided it was time to no longer offer care in old houses but to build a new modern nursing home. So, in 1962, after selling the Allendale and Towaco nursing homes and closing the nursing home on the corner of Godwin and Ackerman Ave. they built a brand-new nursing home on So. Van Dien Ave in Ridgewood.
A few years after opening their new state of the art nursing home in Ridgewood they open another newly constructed nursing home in Montclair NJ on No. Mountain Ave.
Together, the three men operated the two nursing homes until Thanksgiving weekend in 1993 when dad’s brother, Bill, became ill and was unable to continue working. Bill’s illness took an emotional toll on both my dad and grandfather. At this point, Dad had just turned 63 and pop was nearly 87 years old. So, after 40 years, and now with my Uncle’s illness, dad and pop decided it was time to retire. Enter me.
The weekend of Uncle Bill’s illness, Dad asked me if I would leave my position as President and CEO of the Christian Health Care Center (CHCC) to take over the family business, that was November 1993.
I suppose I had been in training for that day my entire life. From the time I was born all I knew was nursing homes, spent untold hours working in the nursing homes, watching my dad, grandfather, and Uncle as they managed the business. It was like taking graduate courses in senior care and human resource management. Even my college path was preparing me. I received a BS in Business management, a Master’s degree in health care management with a minor in long term care. I then did post graduate work at Columbia University and NYU in the sciences, and finally received a Doctor of Letters from Houghton University.
After grad school I became the administrator of a small rural hospital in the hills above Lock Haven Pennsylvania. From there I became the assistant administrator of a larger hospital in Williamsport Pennsylvania and then moved back to NJ to become the President/CEO of the CHCC in 1983, the year my daughter Kristina was born.
This is where I’ll stop, until next month’s newsletter when I will share some stories as shared by my dad before his death in 2018 and from the wonderful experiences I have had these past 30 years being the head of our family’s legacy.