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Services were held Sept. 10 at St. Denis Church in Menlo Park for prominent Realtor Stephen Bellumori, who died unexpectedly of a heart seizure Aug. 14. He was 65.
Mr. Bellumori was born in January 1949 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. In 1970 he volunteered for the Peace Corps and taught adult literacy in Ghana, West Africa.
Following his Peace Corps service, Mr. Bellumori moved to the Bay Area, and began his real estate career in 1974 with Pantano Realty in Menlo Park. He married Darlene Cowley, a Peace Corps colleague, in 1979, and the couple had two sons, David and Thomas.
Mr. Bellumori became very involved in supporting the local public schools his sons attended, say family members. He was an early Menlo-Atherton High School Foundation board member, and remained committed to supporting economically disadvantaged students long after his own sons graduated.
During his four decades as a real estate agent, Mr. Bellumori was active in many real estate organizations, serving as president of the Menlo-Atherton Board of Realtors in 1983. He spent his entire real estate career in Menlo Park, and most recently worked for Coldwell Banker.
Family members say Mr. Bellumori enjoyed helping others, cooking, relaxing on tropical beaches, and the hands-on aspect of renovating older properties.
The family requests that memorial donations be made to the M-A Foundation for the Future, marked for the Steve Bellumori Memorial Find, and mailed to P.O. Box 1228, Menlo Park, CA 94026. Funds raised in his memory will be used to help at-risk students.
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Cort Van Rensselaer
Cortlandt Van Rensselaer of Portola Valley died peacefully on Aug. 22 after battling prostate cancer for many years. He was 90.
Born in Berkeley, Mr. Van Rensellaer grew up in Santa Barbara. After graduating from Stanford University with a degree in electrical engineering in 1944, he served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy until 1946. He returned to Stanford to earn his MBA in 1948.
He met his future wife, Jean, in 1946, and they were married the next year, moving to Los Altos Hills. During their marriage, they lived on the Peninsula and spent the past 49 years in Portola Valley. Ms. Van Rensselaer died in 2011.
Mr. Van Rensselaer began his career with Hewlett-Packard in 1942 as a part-time employee while attending Stanford. He returned to HP in 1948 for 45 more years. He had many roles, including U.S. sales manager and founding general manager of the Colorado Springs Division. His most lasting impact was in HP’s central information systems, say family members.
In addition to his work at Hewlett-Packard, Mr. Van Rensellaer enjoyed managing finances, say family members. He served on five investment club boards, and was a volunteer treasurer for several organizations, including Valley Presbyterian Church. He was also passionate about education, and set up several scholarships to support Stanford students. He served as a trustee of the University Club of Palo Alto’s scholarship fund.
Mr. Van Rensselaer, who lived at The Sequoias, loved playing the piano and organ, snow skiing until he was 88, water skiing, tennis, annual trips to the Sacramento Delta, and traveling the around the world with his wife, say family members.
He is survived by his children, Steve Van Rensselaer, Amy Scrivner, and Rick Van Rensselaer; and six grandchildren.
A memorial service is being planned for early October. Contact Amy Scrivner at cortvanrmemorial@gmail.com for more details. Memorial donations may be made to Pathways Hospice Foundation, 585 N. Mary Ave., Sunnyvale, CA 94085.
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Daniel H. Goodman
Daniel H. Goodman died at his home in Menlo Park on Aug. 23. He was 98.
Mr. Goodman was born in El Paso, Texas, and enlisted in the U.S. Navy in May 1941. During World War II, he rose from seaman to the commissioned rank of lieutenant JG.
He married Helena Wasserman on Aug. 12, 1942, while stationed in San Diego. Several months later, he was shipped overseas to the South Pacific and did not return until 1945.
After being demobilized in September 1945, Mr. Goodman was in the first wave of veterans to enter the University of California, Berkeley, when he was 29 years old. He earned a bachelor’s degree cum laude, a master’s degree, and a doctorate from Berkeley, all in electrical engineering. He was elected to Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu, and Sigma Xi honor societies.
Mr. Goodman worked in the engineering and aerospace industries on the Peninsula and in the Los Angeles area until 1971, when he and his wife started Goodco Press in Mountain View. When they retired in 1984, the business was taken over by their daughter and son-in-law, Leslie and Paul Kraus.
Mr. Goodman is survived by his children, Leslie Kraus and Kennard Goodman; sister Paula Rosen; and three grandchildren.
