Dr. Myron Joseph Veenstra, 77, or Crookston, Minnesota, passed away at his home on Saturday August 29, 2026.

Veenstra was born and raised in rural Shirley. He graduated from Central High School in Crookston in 1967. He then attended the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, graduating in 1971. He joined the US Army (1971-1974) and was stationed in Honolulu, Hawaii where worked with families of military personnel. Veenstra lived for a time in Washington, DC, returning to college where he graduated from the University of Notre Dame du lac in 1976 with a masters degree in Counseling Psychology. Following his graduation he lived in Munich, Germany where he worked for an "illegal charter company." He returned to the US after a year and worked for a community mental health center in Michigan City, Indiana. He then returned to college where he graduated in 1986 from the University of Maryland with a Doctorate of Philosophy in Counseling Psychology.

Veenstra worked for Northeast Human Services from 1985 to 2004 in Grand Forks, North Dakota. For much of this time he was the Unit Directory of Adult and Family Services. He was honored with a national award for his work in North Dakota with intrafamial sex offenders and their families. He then worked for the University Counseling Center at the University of North Dakota where he became the Director until his retirement in 2014.

Survivors include his wife, Kathleen P. Colley, stepson, Nathan Botnen Colley, and son Christopher Colley Veenstra. He is preceded in death by his mother, Hazel E. Frisbie, father, Joseph Selvic Veenstra, his infant bother Harlan, his sister Priscilla Amiot Waslaski and brother-in-law Richard and recently former brother-in-law Jerry Amiot ; Veenstra uncles Frank, Leonard, Louis, and Wade, and aunts, Bertha, Ann, Nettie, Gerdie and Sophie. Frisbie aunt and uncles preceded Myron in death, Sylvia, Claire, Bud.

He died as he would have wished on the land of his father and grandfather. He had traveled widely and enjoyed the company of extended family as he worked on the family's history prior to his death. He also enjoyed building steel/concrete abstract art.