Godfried Van Kerckhoven (1930-2013)

Foreword by Honorary Rector Dillemans

I would like to pay a personal tribute here to Godfried Van Kerckhoven, whom many, including myself, have been missing for quite some time.

Godfried was one of my “best” friends, ever since our student days, which brought us together in the famous ‘de Spoelbergh’ building, between our (the university’s) Naamsestraat and their (the students’) Oude Markt.

His acquaintances called him “Frie” (The omission of ‘God’ was not meant substantively, certainly not by me, and certainly not by… him). And he had many acquaintances, in the family and among his many friends.

His professional aim was the notariat, and he successfully built it up for some 40 years, from 1959 to 1998 (more than forty thousand deeds!) in Aarschot, as the youngest notary in Belgium and the first Dutch-speaking notary of the Leuven district.

We knew him and will go on remembering him as a mild, modest, wise, sociable, respectful and humane man towards everyone, not only towards his clients. He was a shrewd mediator, for the good of all. In this way he put out many family and other fires, and in his wide region he was intensively called upon for functions and assignments in many associations and social initiatives. He was a pronounced group person with a generous heart. He had good relations with his colleagues in the Leuven area and well beyond. He was a thoroughgoing family notary, who gave good advice patiently, carefully but appropriately, and guided skilfully through difficult arrangements and proceedings.

And he committed himself to his family, was proud of his children and grandchildren, who did and still do well. His lovely Mia, whom he married in ’62, stood by him devotedly until his last day.

Roger Baron Dillemans, Honorary Rector of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven