In memoriam Harm Beukers

Op 17 september overleed voormalig hoogleraar in de Geschiedenis der Geneeskunde (1988-2008) aan de Leidse universiteit Harmen Beukers. Harold J Cook, Professor of History at Brown University schreef een mooi In memoriam, dat te lezen is op de website van Gewina.

Harm Beukers (1945–2020), in memoriam

by Harold J. Cook

I came to know Harmen Beukers as an energetic, courteous, sociable, and inquisitive scholar, someone holding to the ambition of bridging the alpha and beta worlds of the modern academy. Both sides have their blind spots, but he was eager to mark guideposts raised in the past so that we could recognize them when finding our own direction. He mentored me and many other students, scholars, and friends with a direct, no-nonsense care and friendship. He was a natural supporter of the institutions that make our lives possible, mobilizing his local network to set up a faculty club or in later years happily putting on an academic gown to fill out many academic boards for the dignity of a Ph.D. defense at his beloved Leiden University. Events he helped to organize might be for the public – like the annual open-house for the anatomical specimens in the university’s medical collections – but he hoped they would help to inspire knowledge more than elicit bewildering wonder. His kind of Dutch gentleman, I discovered, was both private and cosmopolitan, critical and exacting, seeking to investigate the facts with care and diligence; but Harm also…

U kunt het gehele In memoriam lezen op de website van Gewina