JAN DIRK [John Richard] was my grand father. The obit picture [on the Earlier Generations page] is from an Akron Ohio paper probably in the late 30s. He was involved in several businesses. He had some notoriety as a magnetic healer. He claimed he could cure people of many illnesses by laying his hands on people. [I] met him once and he was very confident about it. I believe he had a running battle with an editor of a local paper who called him a fake. My father said that grand pa was such a dominant character that you got better or else.

Jan Dirk

John Richard VanderPutten
January 30, 2001