Gijs Pellinkhof

My good friend and former colleague Gijs Pellinkhof passed away on 7 October 2019, aged 86. Gijs was born on Sumatra where he grew up on the plantation with his parents, brother and sister. During the war with Japan, Gijs first stayed in the women’s camp with his mother and sister, later with his older brother in the men’s camp, where his father had already died. Later, Gijs was actively collecting diaries from the camps. His brother Theo and Gijs also wrote a book about their time on Sumatra. In the Netherlands, Gijs studied aeronautical engineering in Delft. He married Ineke van Ooststroom and became a Mathematics teacher, at first in Rotterdam and from 1969 until his retirement in 1992 at the Rijnlands Lyceum in Oegstgeest, where he also served as careers counsellor. Even as a student, Gijs played in theatre performances, later he did so at the Rijnlands. He also wrote stories and poems from his fantasy world and he made beautiful paintings and portraits. At a later age, Gijs became less mobile. He received chemotherapy for a number of years, but eventually treatment were no longer of any avail. Lately our contacts had become more and more personal and valuable to both of us. Gijs remained clear to the last, though he felt that dying took too long…

Harm Bosscher