Gunda K Vandermars

Gunda K. Vandermars passed away at the age of 87, on Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017, at St. Patrick’s Hospital in Missoula following an illness of several months. Gunda was born Signhild Gunda Karolina Stenmark on Dec. 8, 1929, in the small logging and farming village of Tallsjo in the Lapland region of northern Sweden. Gunda was the fifth of eight children born to Helge and Ingeborg (Lundberg) Stenmark.

Gunda’s childhood in Tallsjo was idyllic in many ways. As Gunda later reminisced, “It was a healthy life, the air was clean, you could drink water right out of the rivers.” However, life in the north of Sweden was not easy in the 1930s. The family grew a lot of their own food, subsisting through the long winters on hard flatbread called tunnbrod that was communally baked in large ovens by the people of the village, salted fish, moose meat, and lingonberries and cloudberries picked and preserved for the winter. The educational opportunities also were limited in Tallsjo, which only had an elementary school. Gunda’s formal schooling as a child came to an end when she completed the sixth grade. However, Gunda had a strong appetite for learning that would lead her to continue her education as an adult and to leave her small village in Sweden. As she later recounted: “I was dying to get out into the world. I was ignorant, all I could think was, I have to get out of here, I am dying to have an education, to become something.” Gunda eventually earned high school diplomas in three different countries. Gunda’s strong work ethic, intellectual curiosity, and sense of adventure were all things that she would pass on to her children.

At age 15, Gunda, after a short stint at an agricultural school designed to turn out good farmers’ wives (where she permanently lost her taste for milk after milking too many cows), moved to Sweden’s capital and cosmopolitan center, Stockholm, to pursue her dream of a more interesting life. She lived with her namesake, her Aunt Signhild, a worldly and artistic woman who was a costume designer for the Stockholm Opera. Gunda found work at the United States Embassy in Stockholm. Then, in 1954, Gunda embarked on an even bigger adventure, moving to Los Angeles, California, to become a Hollywood nanny, eventually working for the CEO of the Paper Mate pen company in Santa Monica.

It was in Los Angeles, at the International Club, that Gunda met Anton van der Mars, originally from the Netherlands and a veteran of the Dutch Resistance. Gunda and Anton were married on Sept. 29, 1958. Between 1958 and 1966, Gunda and Anton lived up and down the West Coast, where Anton worked as an accountant and financial manager for several businesses. During this period, Gunda gave birth to five children, Thomas, Gunnar, Elizabeth, Stephanie and Monica. The family ended up in Canoga Park, California, where Anton worked as the financial manager of a car dealership until 1973, when Anton and Gunda decided to move back to the Netherlands. Thus, Gunda embarked on another adventure at the age of 43.

Arriving in Holland with “five children and 27 suitcases,” Gunda was forced to quickly add Dutch to her arsenal of languages, which included Swedish, German and English. This led to some embarrassing moments, such as when she asked a clerk in a shoe store if she could “taste” some shoes, as the Swedish word for try was very similar to the Dutch word for taste. Gunda quickly adapted to life in Holland and found a job working in a chocolate factory.

When the last of her children left home, Gunda amicably separated from Anton (they never divorced), left the Netherlands, and moved back to Sweden to care for a dying sister. Gunda remained in Stockholm, working as a medical secretary, until she retired at age 65. She then moved to Missoula to be closer to family (two of her five children lived in Montana), although no relatives actually lived in Missoula at the time.

She picked Missoula because it had a bus system (she had no car), an airport to make travel easy, and the University of Montana, so she could take classes that interested her. She particularly enjoyed taking art classes at UM and Marilyn Bruya, her art professor, became one of her best friends in Missoula. While physically able, Gunda rode her bike and walked all around Missoula. She also volunteered at the Poverello Center, where she was known as the “chopping maniac” for her skill and zeal at chopping vegetables in the kitchen. Gunda was also known in Missoula for her hand knitted hats, gloves and Barbie outfits that she often sold from her daughter Monica’s jewelry booth at the Saturday Market. Her family and friends will also miss her wonderful pepparkakor cookies and the glogg (Swedish mulled wine) that she served during the holidays.

In 2004, 50 years after she first came to America, Gunda became a U.S. citizen. The Missoulian did a nice article on her entitled “Citizen Gunda.”

Never surrendering her zest for adventure, Gunda also traveled the world extensively during her retirement years. She traveled to multiple locations in Europe, Australia, Egypt, China, Morocco, Mexico, Costa Rica and Thailand (where she got stuck when the airport closed due to large street protests in Bangkok).

Gunda cut quite a swath from the wilds of Lapland to Missoula and all who were privileged to know her are grateful for this exceptional woman’s interesting and productive life.

Gunda was preceded in death by her parents Helge and Ingeborg Stenmark, her brothers Ingemar, Nils and Yngve, her sisters Eva, Maj and Margit and her husband Anton van der Mars. She is survived by her sister Ingastina Stenmark of Norrkoping, Sweden; and her children Tom (Barb) Vandermars of Clancy, Montana; Gunnar (Mary) Vandermars of Great Falls; Liz (Tony Dwyer) Vandermars, of Springwood, Australia; Stephanie van der Mars, of Hillegom, Netherlands; and Monica (Rob Henry) van der Mars, of Missoula. Gunda is also survived by her grandchildren, Tyler (Trish) Vandermars, of Glasgow; Michelle (Cory Stelling), of Clancy; Ingemar Kok, of Breda, the Netherlands; Caitlin Dwyer of Sydney, Australia; and Lane and Taylor Vandermars of Great Falls; and her great-grandchildren, Hunter and Harlee Vandermars, of Glasgow; and Mia Stelling, of Clancy.

The family would also like to thank Gunda’s wonderful neighbors on Missoula’s Northside who helped her so much during her senior years including Freddy and Marcy, Ken and Ingrid, Roy and Patty, and Tyler (who shared Gunda’s opinion that subzero winter weather was “refreshing”).

Donations in Gunda’s memory can be made to the Poverello Center (thepoverellocenter.org) in Missoula.

A potluck celebration of Gunda’s life for friends and family will be held on Saturday, Sept. 9, at 4 p.m. at 610 N. 3rd St. W. in Missoula.