In Memory of Feimke Willemse

 
A letter from Peter Nikkels:

Dear colleagues and friends,

With great sadness we announce the sudden and unexpected death of Feike Willemse, our friend and colleague, who was a pathologist at the Health Laboratory in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. Feike collapsed suddenly, while playing hockey on Monday May 13, 2002, and died the next day in hospital, due to extensive myocardial infarction. 

Pediatric and perinatal pathology was his main field of interest and he was the secretary of the Dutch/Belgian Working Group on Pediatric Pathology since many years. He was a graduate of the advanced courses in Pediatric Pathology of IPPA, from which he graduated in 2000. Many of you will know him from these courses as a very pleasant and enjoyable person, both in serious conversations and at the bar. He was a member of the board of the Dutch Association for Pathology (NVVP) to which he contributed extensively. 

We will miss him very dearly, not only as a professional, but most of all as a friend. We wish his family all the strength they need in these difficult times. 

On behalf of the (Werkgroep Kinderpathologie der Lage Landen) Dutch Belgian Working Group of Pediatric Pathology, 
Peter Nikkels, Chairman
Ronald de Krijger, Treasurer 

Peter Nikkels
Department of Pathology, H04.312
University Medical Center Utrecht
Postbox 85500
3508 GA Utrecht, The Netherlands
tel. 0031-(0)30-2506567/5 fax. 0031-(0)30-2544990
e-mail p.g.j.nikkels@azu.nl

I will miss the opportunity to see Feike skating on the canals of the Netherlands as he described to me or the opportunity to share a beer at one of the European meetings. More importantly pediatric pathology will miss his presence. One memorial to him is to increase our efforts to bring more excellent pathologists into the ranks of our specialty. We can not afford to lose both friends and fellow pediatric pathologists. We need more colleagues like Feike.

Joe Rutledge