In memoriam Koos de Goede, founding Chairman of former HSD Division
Dr. Jacobus H. de Goede, or ‘Koos’ to all of those who knew him, passed away on 8 October 2000, at age 61. Long-serving AIT staff and faculty members would remember him as the founding Chairman of the Division of Human Settlements Development (HSD) which started in January 1978. Old and new friends would also remember him from his most recent work for AIT, in May 2000, when he came with an international evaluation mission that advised AIT and the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) on future directions for German-funded support to the Institute.
In many respects, Koos de Goede’s life and work were closely linked with urban and rural development in Asia. His studies at the Free University of Amsterdam focused on non-western sociology, with an emphasis on development research and policy. In logical continuation, he spent some years in Pakistan in the early 1970s, under a research cooperation program with the University of Karachi. After joining AIT in 1974 as the first Dutch-seconded faculty member, Koos worked with the interdisciplinary group that set up the urban, rural and regional development program, leading to the establishment of the HSD Division. A whole generation of urban and rural development graduates from AIT will remember Koos as an engaged social policy analyst and advocate of the poor and disadvantaged. In 1980, after those fruitful years in Thailand, he joined the United Nations Center for Human Settlements (UNCHS) in Nairobi, and a few years later, became one of the leaders of an international Dutch consulting firm, Haskoning. Having shifted to DHV, the largest Dutch consulting company with a worldwide reputation, Koos was, as Director, one of the chief executives. Over the many years of his international consulting and advisory work, Koos always maintained close connections with the AIT community, dropping in for a visit, whenever his Asian travel schedule permitted him to do so.
AITians who worked with him and became his friends, would remember Koos as a warm and outgoing person who was devoted to his mission. We share the grief over his untimely death with his wife, Emmy de Goede-Kunst, and two daughters, Amara and Dalanie. We lost a dear friend but his memory will stay with us.
