Ron’s association with linguistics in Amsterdam was a long one. He started in 1964 with his study of Dutch and then moved on to General Linguistics, graduating in 1968. At that time, the department was located in the Voetboogsteeg. Professor Ben Tervoort quickly involved Ron in teaching and in 1970, Ron was appointed assistant professor.

Ron’s main interest was always in language pathology, in particular the linguistic symptoms of aphasia, and later dementia. He worked together with various medical centers in The Netherlands, including the Rotterdam Dijkzigt hospital and, later, the Aphasia Centre of St. Lucas Hospital in Amsterdam. He felt strongly that methodologically sound research needed to be done on the diagnostic instruments and therapeutic effects of treatment on aphasic patients. His dissertation focused on this latter topic, which he completed in 1987 under the supervision of Tervoort.  Furthermore, he found it important that language and speech therapists were properly trained in the diagnosis and treatment of aphasia. In the eighties, Ron took over the main editorship of the Dutch journal Afasiologie, and carried out this task very conscientiously for many years. He visited the University of Boston, USA, in 1977 for a period of three months. He often referred to this visit as an inspirational part of his career.

As a lecturer Ron was renowned for the high standards he demanded from his students, in their thinking as well as in their writing. He spent many hours correcting papers, and the papers were always returned full of comments. The same high standards he applied to himself, working many hours, night and day. He felt he could never do less. Ron’s lectures and tutorials were popular and he always made time for his students.

With his pronounced Amsterdam accent and wry sense of humour Ron was a well-known and distinctive figure in the Bungehuis, the former location of General Linguistics, where he worked for many years. He took early retirement in 2007, and, tragically, was soon afterwards diagnosed with Alzheimer’s dementia. Ron was very proud of his two children, Anna and Niels. His son is a neurologist at the Alzheimer Centre and one of the directors of the Brain Research Centre at the Amsterdam University Medical Centre.  Our thoughts and condolences go out to his family.

On behalf of the Department of Linguistics,
Anne Baker, professor in General Linguistics