IN MEMORIAM: J. NOORDUYN

On April 20 1994, Dr. Jacobus Noorduyn passed away at the age of
67, less than three years after his retirement as the general
secretary and director of the Royal Institute of Linguistics and
Anthropology (KITLV). He had held this office since 1965, after
having acted for some years as the deputy-general secretary.
During these three decades he was actively involved in the rapid
expansion of the Institute, nationally and internationally. 

By Kees Grijns

Traditionally, the main fields of activity of the Institute were
the building up of its unique library and publishing the journal
('Bijdragen') and the monographs ('Verhandelingen' and other
books). When new tasks had to be undertaken and separate
Departments were established for these (Documentation of the
History of Indonesia, Documentation of Modern Indonesia, the
Caribbean Department, the Publications Department, and finally
the KITLV Press), Noorduyn gave careful and considered guidance
to these new developments. He also participated constantly in the
wider associations in which the cultural co-operation with
Indonesia took shape, and he always kept in close contact with
the Institute's representative in Indonesia. Still, for him the
library and the publications remained a matter of major concern,
doubtlessly because there flow the main sources of any scholarly
work.

THE NETHERLANDS BIBLE SOCIETY
Noorduyn was a scholar in heart and soul, and an all-round
professional at that. The list of his publications (included in
his Festschrift 'Excursies in Celebes', VKI 147, 1991) comprises
work in the fields of ancient and modern history, textual
studies, literature, linguistics, and even epigraphy. Regionally,
he was a specialist in the languages of Sulawesi, particularly
Buginese and Makassarese, and in Sundanese. This is connected
with his training for the Netherlands Bible Society for which he
worked in Indonesia as a linguist and Bible translator from 1957
to 1961, the year in which he had to return to the Netherlands
due to immigration and health problems. Originally the Bible
Society assigned him to the study of Buginese and other southern
Sulawesi languages; his doctoral thesis (1955) is on Buginese
historiography. Afterwards, while still in the Netherlands, he
was instructed to change to Sundanese.
When Noorduyn knew that his days were numbered, he concentrated
with enormous energy on the completion of some of  the
publications he had planned for the years to come. The reader of
'Bijdragen' will find these in the most recent (and probably in
forthcoming) issues and will be able to see how friends and
colleagues have supported him. Two of his major undertakings, the
publication of what is known as the 'Notitie Speelman'
(Speelman's survey of the situation in southern Sulawesi of 1669)
and the unique Old Sundanese Ramayana version could still be
commended by him to the care of his most competent colleagues.
Here we honour the memory of a distinguished and honest scholar
to whom many indonesianists are greatly indebted.