By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org
For Lillian Vander Veen, her career in the travel business started with a trip to Hawaii.
“It was our 25th anniversary and it was something that we really wanted to do,” Vander Veen said, adding that before the trip she had quit a job working at Northern Air, which had been located at the then Kent County Airport (which later became the Gerald R. Ford International Airport.)
It was on that trip that she would meet Sid and Bertha Lenger, a couple well-known for their travel tours and owner of Lenger Travel.
Sometime after that trip – which Vander Veen noted was wonderful – Sid Lenger approached her with an offer, would she be interested in working for the travel agency?
“I was surprised but Sid kept saying he knew of my previous work experience and thought it would be a good fit,” she said, adding she had worked for two different companies at the airport and was familiar with airline travel.
It not only was a good fit, but an opportunity to see the world, Vander Veen said, adding she has been able to visit Hawaii, Alaska, and Florida several times along with seeing parts of Europe.
“Lenger Travel was the first to book a DC 10 and a [Boeing] 747 for tour groups,” Vander Veen said.
Vander Veen would help to open an office at the now defunct Grand Village Mall that was located on Fairlanes Avenue in Grandville.
The agency, which at one time had several offices in the Greater Grand Rapids area, went through some rough patches. The Lengers eventually retired from the business selling it to another couple who Vander Veen would purchased the businesses from.
“It was through John VanSingel that I was able to bring the agency to Byron Center,” Vander Veen said, adding that VanSingel offered her a spot in the bank he was operating. She eventually moved Lenger Travel to its current location at 2551 84th St. SW.
“You don’t get into the travel business to become rich,” Vander Veen said. “You do it because you love to travel. I think that for that reason it makes it more of a women’s field. It is often women who are planning the vacations.”
That isn’t to say that Vander Veen didn’t have challenges as a working woman in the 50s and 60s.
“The issue I had was not because I was a woman,” Vander Veen said. “Rather it was when I was living in Georgia at the time with my family. I was working for a company and I had befriended an African-American woman and it really bothered me that we couldn’t do anything together outside of work.
“We could only be friends at the office. It was 1953.”
Vander Veen still owns Lenger Travel and mostly oversees the books. Through the years, she has seen a lot of changes in the travel industry, but one thing remains constant: people like to travel. Lenger Travel has changed with the times, now offering assistance with destination travel to such places as Disney World and cruise ship adventures.
While Vander Veen is not in the office very much, she is active in the community she loves, the City of Wyoming, and attends many of the Wyoming Kentwood Area Chamber of Commerce events, including volunteering for Metro Cruise.
