Obituary: Cecilia Verbeek
Prepared by the Verbeek Family
Cecilia M. Verbeek, a longtime resident of Stony Brook, died Monday, July 1, in Potomac, Maryland, of natural causes. Her brother, Robert Miguel who also lived in Stony Brook, predeceased her in 2023 in Whiting, New Jersey. Her husband of 53 years, Clemens, died in June 2020.
Survivors include her brother Mauro Arturo Miguel and his wife Gloria of Severn, Maryland, their children Celerina, Arturo, and Fernando, along with their families. Mrs. Verbeek is also survived by three sons: Christiaan and his wife Siobhan and their two sons, Nicolaas and Aidan, of Potomac; Erik and his wife April and their daughter Alexa of Morgan Hill, California; and Philip and his wife Tara and their daughter Brooklyn of Hudson, Massachusetts. She also leaves behind a large extended family on her husband’s side in the Netherlands.
Mrs. Verbeek, a registered nurse and 1962 graduate of Cornell Nursing School, lived and worked in New York City before moving to Long Island. She enjoyed the arts with lifelong friends and roommates Dottie Eva, Barbara, and Lizzie. After nursing school, she traveled extensively through Asia, parts of the Middle East, and Europe, where she met her husband in Amsterdam. They married in New York in 1966. Mrs. Verbeek first worked at New York Hospital in Manhattan — now New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center — alongside her mother Celerina, also a registered nurse, and later at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip, Long Island, until her retirement.
An avid gardener and skilled baker and cook, Mrs. Verbeek was also a master quiltmaker and enjoyed music – singing and playing the piano – well into her 80s. She was a central figure in her large family, who emigrated from the Philippines after World War II, and will be deeply missed.
A funeral service for Cecilia Verbeek was held July 20 at the Robert A. Pumphrey Funeral Home in Maryland.
A family burial is scheduled for August 2 at 10 a.m. at Pinelawn Memorial Park and Arboretum in Farmingdale. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial contributions to a charitable organization of the donor’s choice.
