Casimir Albrecht Willem Jeekel (1922 - 2010)

Jeekel



Dear friends and colleagues,

We received this year the very bad news related to the death of our estimated colleague Casimir Albrecht Willem Jeekel from The Netherlands, who recently passed away, age 88 y. old, in March 2010.
Prof. Jeekel devoted a large part of his scientific life and carreer to the knowledge and description of myriapod taxonomy and biodiversity and he is well known via his numerous, helpful and remarkable papers, among them the more than famous Nomenclator generum et familiarum Diplopodorum 1970(71). He remained active till the very end, after the edition of XI issues of his very personal "Myriapod Memoranda".
During his scientific life, he took important responsabilities and head directions inside the Zoological Museum Amsterdam. In 1949 de Beaufort was succeeded by prof. H. Engel, who was succeeded in 1968 by J.H. Stock as professor and C.A.W. Jeekel as director of the Zoological Museum Amsterdam - University of Amsterdam.
He was nominated as emeritus director Zoologisch Museum, Amsterdam
He was an emiment and active member of the CIM since the very beginning of the story, and, among other things, organiser of the 6th International Congress of Myriapodology, Amsterdam, 12-17 April 1984, and he had been elected unanimously as Honorary Member of the CIM Society in 2002 during the International Congress and General Assembly held at Mtuzini (South Africa).
We send to his wife Jeanne, his family and Grandchildren our best deep and sincere" condolences.

J.-J. Geoffroy, CIM Secretariat


Miscellaneous recollections from the myriapod community

Casimir Albrecht Willem Jeekel
I was greatly saddened to learn of the death of my dear personal friend and professional colleague, Cas Jeekel. While the distance between the US and Netherlands, and the cost of trans-Atlantic travel, precluded direct contact, Cas and I continually communicated via letter and email; I still have all of his communications and treasure them. He and Jeanne were guests in my home in Raleigh in 1977, and I spent a day at his home and flower garden in Bergen (Netherlands) in 1979, when I was headed to Africa. Almost as if it were preordained, Lourdes and I kept mysteriously encountering Cas and Jeanne in Bergen, Norway, in 2005, as we independently explored the city. His uplifting email during my near terminal illness in 2008 was instrumental in helping me summon the mental and physical energy to fight through the many difficulties and return to a productive life. Cas was a joy to "speak" to by email and post, and I valued his professional counsel. As I type this note now, I can look across my office and see the photos of him and me on my bulletin board that Lourdes took in Bergen (Norway) in 2005 that I particularly treasure as mementos. Tall, stately, and dignified, he had a presence about him; at age 83, he was significantly taller than me at 63, and he still had a full head of glistening white hair, whereas half of mine was then gone and what remained was gray.
The work legacy that Cas left for future generations will still be at the front of Myriapodology centuries from now. Diplopodologists are heavily in his debt, as he laid the foundation that enabled future taxonomic works on millipeds; his impact on my work is immeasurable. It is unfortunate that new students will not get to converse with him and gain an appreciation for his encyclopedic knowledge of millipeds. While they were criticized for being non-mainstream, not peer reviewed (as if he had many true "peers"), etc., I particularly appreciated the 11 issues of Myriapod Memoranda that he produced voluntarily at his own expense during his last decade, a magnanimous gesture to impart still more of his knowledge and further the science to which he devoted his life. The several "Bibliographic Catalogs" are invaluable in consolidating the literature and information on those taxa and have already greatly facilitated my work.
An icon in Myriapodology is gone, a true gentleman scientist. Myriapodology will not see his like again.

Rowland Shelley



Cher Jean-Jacques, chers Collègues,
Je viens d´apprendre cette nouvelle, par vos messages. Cas Jeekell était très content lorsque je lui ai écrit l'année dernière en lui disant que j´allais lui dédier une nouvelle espèce (Schendylops jeekeli). Jamais je n'ai oublié la gentillesse qu´il a eu avec moi, de me recevoir chez lui en Hollande (en 1979) pour consulter sa très riche bibliothèque et documentation myriapodologique.
Vraiment, une très triste nouvelle celle du décès de notre cher ami, Monsieur Jeekel.
Bien amicalement,

Luis A. Pereira



Dear colleagues,
I am very saddened to learn of Jeekel's death, although I knew he had not been in good health for a very long time. Despite his condition he continued to produce high-quality papers in his self-published 'Myriapod Memoranda' and maintained his keen interest in the Australian millipede fauna.
The latest version of the Millipedes of Australia website has a species accumulation curve on the introduction page: http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/zoology/millipedes/index.html
The rise beginning in the late 1970s is largely Jeekel's work.

Dr Robert Mesibov



Thanks for contribution to Göran Andersson, Henrik Enghoff, Zoltan Korsós, Bob Mesibov, Luis Pereira, Rowland Shelley...
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