Bert van der Lee; Supervisor for Times’ O.C. Pressroom

Lamburtus Wilhelmus “Bert” van der Lee, a Los Angeles Times pressman for 23 years, will be memorialized at services Wednesday at Saddleback Chapel Mortuary in Tustin. Van der Lee, who died Friday, was 61.

Van der Lee started at the Orange County edition in 1975, and worked his way up from apprentice to pressroom supervisor at the newspaper’s Costa Mesa plant before his retirement in December 1998. Since then, he had spent a lot of time at the Phoenix Club, a popular Anaheim gathering spot for German expatriates, said his daughter, Diana Benton.

“He went to the German Club too,” she said. “He loved to dance.”

Born Aug. 8, 1939, in Berghem, Netherlands, van der Lee followed relatives who had emigrated to the United States. Benton said she thought he arrived shortly before 1962, when he was drafted into the U.S. Army.

During his six years in the service, from 1962 to 1968, he served as a military policeman and was stationed in Okinawa, Japan, and in Germany, where he met his first wife and grew to love all things Bavarian, said Benton, 36.

More recently, van der Lee frequented the Spires restaurant in Tustin, where he ate meals so regularly he was “like family,” said waitress Ava Kotsonas, 25.

“He was our stock-tip guy,” Kotsonas said Monday afternoon, recalling how van der Lee stopped by even between meals to offer investment advice.

He is survived by his wife, Beverly van der Lee of Nevada; his former wife, Ann Marie van der Lee of Mission Viejo; his daughter, Diana Benton of Mission Viejo; and three brothers: William J. van der Lee of Landers, Cornelus L. van der Lee of Norco, and Marinus W. van der Lee of the Netherlands.

Viewing will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, followed by a 2 p.m. memorial. The mortuary is at 220 E. Main St., in Tustin.