Willem Lodewijk van Utrecht in memoriam

• Main Author: Spoel, S. van der
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: 1994
• Subjects: Antarctic; Antarctic Ocean; The Antarctic; Antarc*; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://www.repository.naturalis.nl/record/505367; http://www.repository.naturalis.nl/document/549024

After a few years of serious illness Dr. W. L. van Utrecht, born 13 December 1926 in Tiel, died still very unexpected at the age of 67 year on 10 August 1994. After a study of chemistry and biology he joined from 1952 till 1963 the working group for Cetacea of the Netherlands Organisation of Applied Sciences (TNO), and the University of Amsterdam in the periods 1953-1956 and 1963-1988. In the season 1953/54 his first large expedition took place with the catcher “Enern”, a three month trip for whale marking, and two month visit to South Georgia. As an inspector he made a cruise to the Antarctic ocean with the Dutch whalefactory ship “Willem Barendsz” in the seasons 1959/1960 and as a scientist in the period 1962/1963. In 1966 he got his PhD at the same day as his wife C. N. Van Utrecht-Cock. In the period 1955-1963 important contributions were made to the Scientific Subcommittee of the International Whaling Commission. His last important field work was done during a scientific cruise in 1980 to the North Atlantic Ocean, studying bathypelagic fish and eel larvae. Van Utrecht was a broadly educated person, discussing politics, arts and economics with the same ease as biological problems, always having the literature and newest developments at hand to enlighten the discussions. His main interest foccussed on Whales and whaling, growth in all kind of animals, and marine biology as is clear from his literature list. A great number of manuscripts he left, however, in an unfinished state, not inclined to complete minor details in general theory or results. For this reason he did not publish on, for example, the history of whaling and sciences, development of universities, general principles of symmetry in biology. Many students still have great profit from his allround interest and knowledge.