In Memoriam: Dr. Martin Bakker (1933-2020

Martinus Arnoud Bakker, professor emeritus of Dutch at Calvin University and faithful columnist in the DIS Magazine, passed away peacefully in his home on June 30, 2020. He was 87 years old.

Dr. Martin Bakker’s career of teaching Dutch language, literature, and culture to North Americans began when he joined the Calvin College faculty in 1981, where he taught until his retirement in 1997. At Calvin, Professor Bakker carried the program as the only full-time Dutch faculty member, teaching all levels of language and literature. Martin also led student trips to the Netherlands as well as to South Africa.

Raised in the Netherlands, Martin moved to South Africa in his teens and worked in a language lab, translating Dutch to Afrikaans, in addition to teaching Afrikaans at the University level. In South Africa Martin also met Louise Jansen van Vuuren who would become his wife. In his early forties, Martin and family moved to the Netherlands where he taught High School English. In his forties, Martin and family moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan for Martin to begin a professorship at Calvin College. An expert in Dutch literature, Dr. Bakker earned his Ph.D. at the Open University in Utrecht in the Netherlands with a dissertation on the great Dutch poet Martinus Nijhoff.

Professor Bakker was known also as a skilled linguist, a scholar of modern poetry, a prolific reviewer of Dutch literature in publications such as World Literature Today, The World and I, and the Encyclopedia Brittanica Yearbook Supplement.

Colleagues remember Martin for his dry sense of humor and for the encouragement he gave to younger colleagues. He was also an astute reader of literature, and colleagues enjoyed his sharp literary analysis. More than anything, perhaps, Martin was forever a student of language. Language—in all its nuance, idiom, and idiosyncrasies—was an endless source of fascination for Martin. He loved to talk about language, and I, for one, enjoyed many a conversation with him about this or that expression that had no direct equivalent in this or that other language, whether Dutch, English, Afrikaans, or German. As Martin’s successor at Calvin College (now University) I was always glad to know that if I ever had a question about something in Dutch, an answer would be only a quick e-mail away. He enjoyed sharing his linguistic expertise.

Professor Bakker also loved to write about language. Readers of the DIS Magazine will, of course, know Dr. Bakker as the author of the popular column “Beter Nederlands” which Martin created and debuted in 1997. Martin faithfully produced column after column of Beter Nederlands until 2018, writing nearly 90 columns all in all. Nearly always written in a combination of English and Dutch, Martin’s Beter Nederlands pieces were both educational and

entertaining. More often than not, they challenged the Martin and I enjoyed doing a lot of things readers to participate as well––to translate a difficult together – playing tennis, playing his beautiful passage, to explain a curiosity of Dutch, or to offer pump organ, sailing, and lots of searching their own recollection of a particular use of language. Martin always enjoyed receiving responses from his The DIS In Pella conversations in both Dutch and English, especially when he became homebound after readers. those emergency surgeries that almost ended I’ll close this memoriam with some fitting quotes from several people who worked with Martin or learned Dutch from him. his life at the time. And I came to greatly admire the equanimity with which he bore that woeful transition from a very active life of health and vigor to a body sapped of its

DIS Magazine editor, Arend van der Pols, shared strength and mobility. Fortunately, his mental with me some of his experience working with Martin: acuity remained fully intact and its

Martin was always a faithful contributor, very exacting, but also had a sense of humor. I was explorations gave him much pleasure and satisfaction. really surprised when, less than a year ago, he But what I appreciated especially about came up with the idea for shorter pieces on Martin was his genuine authenticity. There language he called taalsplinters when he knew was no pretense about him. He was real and he couldn’t do longer columns. He came up transparently so. That made for good heart with enough for three issues before he died. I to heart talks and many a deep discussion. know he loved hearing from the members and was proud Beter Nederlands was so well received. Martin is survived by his wife of 57 years, Louise Jansen van Vuuren Bakker. He was a loving father to Marlise (James) VanZytveld, Heloise (Kevin) Kihnke

Former student Stephen Staggs wrote: and Annelise (Daniel) Erdman. He was the proud

I got to know Dr. Bakker while taking Dutch 202 at Calvin College in 2007. At the end of the course, I asked him if he would be willing to tutor me privately. He agreed and over the grandfather of Jonathan, Cecilia, Aleksander, Christian, Victoria, Austin, Spencer and Makayla. Martin is survived by his dear sister Anna van der Vlies Bakker who lives in the Netherlands. next several years, the Bakkers welcomed me into their home once a week for over an hour. Herman De Vries

We would converse—natuurlijk alleen in het Frederik Meijer Chair of Dutch

Nederlands—about a variety of topics as well Language and Culture as my written answers to the twenty-plus Calvin University questions he sent me about the chapter of the Grand Rapids, Michigan

Dutch novel he had assigned. His instruction in the Dutch language proved invaluable in the completion of my dissertation and PhD degree. I will sorely miss his kindness, wisdom, wit, and sense of humor.

Another colleague, Henry Baron, a fellow immigrant from the Netherlands and who retired from Calvin (English Department) the same year as Martin, shared these thoughts: Taalsplinter