Paul C. Van Valkenburgh, 95, of Riverside, Calif., formerly of Omaha, died June 14, 1998, at the Extended Care Hospital in Riverside.

Memorial services will be 1:30 p.m., Sunday, July 5, at the Arlington Community Church with the Rev. Richard Siders officiating. Burial will be in the Arlington Cemetery.

Reckmeyer-Moser Funeral Home in Arlington is in charge of arrangements.

Paul C. Van Valkenburgh was the son of a Presbyterian minister who homesteaded in South Dakota and took the young Paul with him in a covered wagon to build a tarpaper-covered house.

His life’s work took him from the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota to the corporate headquarters of General Motors in New York City.

In 1926, with a business degree from the University of Nebraska, he began his GM career in collections in Nebraska. He subsequently headed the GM offices in Omaha, Sioux City, Iowa, St. Louis, Denver and Cleveland, where he led the diesel motors operation.

He retired as vice president of General Motors Acceptance Corporation, the financial arm of GM, after a 40-year career.

He returned to Omaha after his retirement and maintained a winter home in Naples, Fla. He took up winter residence in Green Valley, Ariz. In 1976 and moved there year-round in 1985. He lived there until 1996 when he moved to Riverside, Calif., to be near his late daughter’s husband and his wife, Jack and Mary Holley.

At the time of his death, he was the oldest retired officer of GM.

His many activities included membership in the Green Valley Masonic Lodge 71, the Sabbar Shrine in Tucson, the Greeen Valley Shrine Club, the Scottish Rite in Omaha, the Santa Rita High Twelve Club 562, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Alumni Club of Delta Sigma Phi business profession fraternity and Beta Gamma Sigma international honorary fraternity.

He is survived by two grandchildren, Erin Keables of Naperville, Ill., and Shaun Savage of Aloha, Ore.; five great-granddaughters; a sister, Louise Thompson of Arlington; and a brother, Rollin E. Van Valkenburgh of Everett, Wash.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Mae, and their daughter, Joan.

~~~Obituaries courtesy of the Nebraska Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair, Nebraska Public Library~~~

Find a Grave Memorial #46419338