John Dicou

Yo-duh-lay-hee-hooo!” Johannes “John” or “Yo” Dicou never passed through a tunnel without checking its acoustics for yodeling-concert potential. It wouldn’t take much for the gregarious Dutchman to launch into an impromptu performance. All of a sudden, a jaunty glint would appear in his eye, and it was showtime.
An optimist who loved people, John died on September 12, 2020 at age 91 in the Sugar House home where he lived for the majority of his life with his late sweetheart Hennie and where the couple raised their four children. If you’ve walked past the house — which John, a highly regarded master brick mason, built himself — you’ve no doubt seen him out front, happily watching the world from a bench on the porch. He spent countless hours seated there, waving to passersby, feeling the breeze, and keeping an eye on the neighborhood. He was a friendly face whether you were a stray cat, a mail carrier, or one of his grandchildren coming to challenge him to a game of Mens Erger Je Niet. It’s with heavy hearts that we realize he won’t be sitting there anymore when we round the corner.
Born in Apeldoorn, Netherlands on May 16, 1929, John was the 6th of 9 children of Gerritje Verbeek and Jacob Johann Dicou. As a boy, his country was occupied by Germany in World War II, and John was relied on by his family to bring them food because his older brothers and father were either in forced labor camps or were hiding under the house to avoid being taken to camps. John would push his bicycle, which had a sled attached to the back for carrying food, for long distances. Barely a teenager, he was often gone for days at a time before finally returning with a sledful of potatoes.
John used to talk about how even the younger children in his house didn’t know that their dad and older brother were living beneath them in a 3-foot-tall crawl space “because children talk.” Over the years, John shared many stories about that time. As a listener, you were never able to fully comprehend what it must have been like to live in a war zone, to be subject to arrest, and to worry about not getting enough to eat. But you were grateful that John did so much to make life better for the family he would go on to create.
In his mid 20s, John immigrated to Salt Lake City where he met a Dutch girl named Hendrica Copier who had arrived in America a few years earlier. The two fell in love and had four children: Mike, Brent, Heidi, and Bryan. Over the years, John and Hennie became more and more American, but they never stopped being Dutch. They spoke their native tongue often; never lost their accents; ate herring, Dutch cheese, and the saltiest black licorice on earth; and proudly wore wooden shoes and the color orange. During the Olympics, you were likely to see a Dutch flag and an American flag hanging side by side in their front window.
Though they were opposites in many ways (Hennie wasn’t the type to jump in and share the yodeling stage), the life-long lovebirds had a sweet, loyal, and playful relationship until Hennie’s death in 2011. For a lover of games and competition, meeting Hennie was the luckiest break of John’s life — it’s hard to say whether John or Hennie loved games more. If they weren’t on their front porch, traveling, or visiting friends or family, they were at their kitchen table playing round after round of their current favorite game. Tracking the score, yelling at dice, belly-laughing at their impossibly bad luck, and asking the other for a rematch. Over the years, there were eras of Scrabble, Yahtzee, Phase 10, Mexican Train, and Rummikub, to name a few of the titles that enjoyed runs as the game of choice.
When it came to his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, John was a devoted “Dad, “Grandpa,” or “Opa.” The covid-19 quarantine was especially difficult for someone like John, a social butterfly who loved bringing life to a party. When you saw him, Grandpa Yo made you feel special because he was always so thrilled to see you. He was proud of his children and his grandchildren, loved and accepted them, and wanted to tell you all about them. As a great grandfather, he delighted in bouncing his grandchildrens’ little ones on his knee while singing Dutch songs. In the final months of his life, he continued receiving visitors in his front yard where he’d sit on his bench and tell classic stories such as the one in which he stumps Johnny Carson’s band with a tune they’ve never heard before: a Malaysian lullaby.
A few more things John loved: getting up early to have coffee at Harmons with his friends; traveling with his adult children to Holland, even into his 90s; riding the bus to Wendover to play the slot machines; reminiscing about life highlights such as playing on the U.S. Army soccer team as a young man; and walking all over Salt Lake City to check in on the now-historic structures he helped build so many years ago, such as Abravanel Hall and buildings on university campuses.
John was fortunate to have his daughter Heidi living so nearby as he aged. As his next-door neighbors, Heidi and her husband Andy were always there for John when he needed help, a meal, a ride, or a Mexican Train opponent. Their kindness will always be remembered.
In short, John was the sort of person who many people considered their best friend. If you saw John headed your way, you’d start smiling because you knew you were about to laugh. Evidence of his good humor? His headstone, which he picked out himself, reads: “The shell is empty. The nut is gone.”
We will miss that nut very much.
John is preceded in death by his wife Hennie Dicou, his daughter-in-law Trishelle Dicou, his parents, many siblings and friends. He is survived by three sons and one daughter: Mike (Leslie) Dicou, Brent (Laylene) Dicou, Heidi (Andy) Parks, and Bryan (Natalie) Dicou; many grandchildren; great-grandchildren; two sisters: Janna (Karl) Van Leeuwen and Gerrie Dicou; and one brother Dirk (Louise) Dicou.
Following graveside services, John was buried Friday, September 18, 2020, next to Hennie at Mountain View Memorial Estates Cemetery, 3115 East 7800 South, Cottonwood Heights, Utah.
Next May, on or around John’s birthday, please join the Dicou family for a celebration of John’s life. We will meet in a park, share some laughs, and recount some of our favorite memories of this vivacious and much-loved man.
In Lieu of flowers, please take a friend to breakfast.
To see a video of John’s graveside service visit the link, https://youtu.be/tPvHRn6gfcc