Obituary
In the care of Solemn OaksDennis Kroeze, 75, of Grant, died Sunday, July 19, 2026, at home, after seventy-five years spent mostly out of doors and fifty of them spent finding water. A well-driller by trade and something close to a legend by reputation, he drilled for half a century across Newaygo County and beyond, and was known, without much exaggeration, as the man to call when the dowsers had already given up.
He was born January 26, 1951, in Grant, the son of Herman and Alice Kroeze, and he grew up on sandy ground where a good well was the difference between a farm and a foreclosure. He left school early to work, married Sharon Kuipers in 1972, and by his mid-twenties had bought his first rig and hung out a shingle that would stay up for the next fifty years.
Dennis drilled thousands of wells — for farms and subdivisions, for cabins up north and church camps and a good share of the houses in three counties. He read the ground the way other men read a map, from the lay of the land and the set of the trees and something he could never quite explain and never tried to, and he had an almost supernatural record for hitting good water where others had hit sand, rock, or nothing at all. Contractors kept his number for the jobs everyone else had walked away from. When a dowser with a forked stick came up dry, the next call, more often than not, was to Dennis Kroeze.
He worked in weather that sent everyone else indoors, took a handshake as a contract, and finished more than one job at a loss rather than leave a family without water heading into winter. He trained his sons and a nephew on the rig, taught them that the customer's well mattered more than the customer's check, and put more clean water under more Newaygo County kitchens than any monument will ever record. He was gruff with strangers, soft with dogs and grandchildren, and reliably the last truck to leave a job site.
He hunted a little, fished less than he claimed, and could sit contentedly on a tailgate watching a rig turn for the better part of an hour. He is remembered for his hands and his stubbornness, which were both considerable; for a fairness that ran deeper than any well he sank; and for fifty years of quiet, essential work that half the county drinks from and never thinks about — which is exactly how he wanted it.
He is survived by his wife of fifty-four years, Sharon; his sons, Kurt (Michelle) Kroeze and Brett (Angie) Kroeze, both of Grant; his daughter, Wendy (Jason) Roelofs of Newaygo; nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren; his brother, Larry Kroeze of Howard City; and the nephew he trained, Cody Kroeze, who will keep the rig turning.
He was preceded in death by his parents and by his sister, Judith Wierenga, in 2022.