Thank you for joining us for the Annual Johannes
Van Tilburg Lecture named after its initiator
who was also, as you learned, the former Honorary
Consul of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in
Los Angeles.
Tonight, I am accompanied by several of my
colleagues from the Consulate in San Francisco.
Deborah van den Brande,
we have Michael Dorius, Jan Top,
we also have Mylene Jankowski and Peter Post
of our Netherlands Business Support Office
in L.A., they are local representatives, and we have
Conny Lederer, who is the assistant to the current Honorary Consul.
We have Karin [. . .] who was our colleague at the
Consulate for over 25 years in a consular role,
and we have Henk Hanselaar,
who is our Honorary Consul in San Diego.
Just wanted to mention them.
Professor Bleeker, it's been a very inspiring lecture.
Thank you for that.
It's been thought provoking,
and I very much appreciate it.
I also noticed a number of people who are
part of the network for Dutch Academics in
the US, DNA US is the name that was established
at UC Berkeley when our Queen Máxima visited
the Bay Area in September.
And I see a number of members of that society,
of that group also present here.
So thank you for joining us.
But you can imagine that is not the reason
why I'm here behind this podium.
The true reason that I stand here before you
is that we wish to pay a special homage to
the work of Jan Van Tilburg as our Honorary Consul.
He's been absolutely instrumental to the thriving
relationship between L.A. and the Netherlands
and was the driving force behind the establishment
of the Netherlands Business Support Office.
I just mentioned two of our colleagues here.
Let me briefly share some background
on Jan and his many accomplishments.
In 1965, Jan moved to the
United States from the Netherlands.
He founded his architecture firm, which eventually
turned into Van Tilburg, Banvard & Soderbergh, VTBS.
His work is internationally recognized and
visible throughout Los Angeles.
A prime example being the
Santa Monica Third Street Promenade.
Jan embodies Dutch excellence in architecture,
urban development and sustainable construction
on the U.S. West Coast.
For 12 years, he served the Kingdom of the
Netherlands as Honorary Consul,
from 2010 until 2022, to be exact.
In 2010, when our Consulate moved
from Los Angeles to San Francisco,
it was seen as a big loss to the Dutch community.
Fortunately, Jan was ready, willing and able
to serve as our Honorary Consul.
He immediately embraced the
broader Dutch community
upon his appointment. Jan also maintained
warm connections to the Dutch School in Southern
California and UCLA, which he
both financially supported.
You and Jo Anne together, obviously.
For years, Jan has been closely connected to the
Board of the Netherland-America Foundation, NAF,
we have the new president here, where
he sits on the NAF Board in New York, its
national chapter, as well as the
NAF Board here in Southern California.
Lastly, together with his wife, Jo Anne Van
Tilburg, and through their generous contributions,
they make UCLA's Annual Johannes Van Tilburg
Lecture possible, an event that is highly valued
by the community,
judging by your attendance tonight. Our Consulate
seeks to honor Jan's outstanding contributions
to the Netherlands tonight.
Unbeknownst to him, I hope.
And I think so, because when I came in, I said,
Jan, I happened to be in town just for meetings,
and I just joined the lecture.
A special recognition has
been prepared. In this regard,
we received letters of support from Ms Elga
Sharpe, former Chief of Protocol of the City
of Los Angeles.
She could not be here tonight.
Ambassador Rockwell Schnabel, former U.S.
Ambassador to the European Union,
Professor Wiljan van den Akker, Distinguished
Professor of Poetry at Utrecht University,
Professor Margaret Jacob, Distinguished
Research Professor at UCLA, and Mr. August
Minke and Ms. Laura Lingthart of the Dutch
School of Southern California, all speaking
to Jan's service to the Kingdom.
I would also like to especially mention our
gratitude to Jo Anne, who was instrumental
in bringing all of us together tonight.
Thank you, Jo Anne.
Joanne and Jan's former assistant, Ms. Conny
Lederer, I just mentioned her,
both graciously helped with the
preparations for a royal application.
So without further ado,
and in order to recognize and thank Jan
for all he has done for our country,
let me briefly switch to Dutch for this.
[Speaking Dutch]
For those who don't speak Dutch, and it might
be more than just a few in this room, I will
be very happy to translate.
And please, please take your seats.
It is therefore my distinct honor and pleasure
to award Jan the Royal Distinction of Knight
in the Order of Oranje-Nassau
on behalf of His Majesty the King.
So I hope you can still hear me.
Jan, before we go over to the decoration,
I will be removing this just because it will
distract from the fact that there's
one more important thing coming.
And clearly, we will be asking you to reflect
on this royal distinction and address the
guests tonight.
But before we do that, we have a few people
who will be addressing you, if you don't mind.
So people who think very fondly of you and
would like to share that with the audience.
So there's a few people.
Please, dear ladies and gentlemen, bear
with me and bear with us because we have six
people speaking.
They have all promised to be very concise.
And well, me being Dutch and being direct,
you know our reputation,
I will be standing here and in good Dutch
tradition, you know, will be...
Well, you can feel that.
You can feel that.
But we have a few people who
would like to address you, Jan.
So first, I would like to invite your wonderful
wife, Jo Anne, to say a few words.
Jo Anne, put up here.
Yes, please.
Thank you.
Hello.
Hello, you.
I just want to say, on behalf of this family
of ours, that the words we heard here tonight,
diversity, inclusion, sharing, illumination.
That is what that man is brought into our
family and into our lives.
I'm grateful.
I love you.
You deserve this.
Enjoy it.
Jo Anne, you have been absolutely instrumental
in keeping this secret from him,
together with Deborah,
so well done.
That's a big accomplishment.
That's a big accomplishment.
I would now like to invite up to the podium
Wiljan van den Akker, Professor Emeritus at
Utrecht University, and Margaret Jacob,
Distinguished Professor of Research at UCLA History.
But we're not going to sing together.
Okay.
First of all, I am very sorry that my wife,
Ester Jansma, who also gave
Jan Van Tilburg lecturer in archeology,
cannot be here because she's ill.
But I am speaking on behalf of her.
So I'm speaking with two voices.
First of all, Dear Mr. Storimans,
Deputy Consul General.
When I drove up from my hotel, I didn't
know how to address you officially.
So I thought maybe Your Highness.
That would be Jan.
Okay.
Dear Jan, dear Jo Anne, dear Marieke, and
the whole family.
Dear Peg,
dear Laurie Hart, dear Deborah,
dear everybody who made this possible.
When you ask me to address Jan after
this for about one hour, I thought I'm very
honest, but it's too much.
After a lecture of Maaike
for an hour, it's too much.
So I shortened it.
You went over your time twice,
so I will go over my time twice.
But briefly, let me correct the history of
the Johannes Van Tilburg Lecture.
The Johannes Van Tilburg Lecture originally
started with Peg. In the early nineties,
Peg and I were discussing how can
we improve Dutch studies at UCLA.
And one of the things she came up with was,
can we make it possible to have an annual
lecture from people from Utrecht, coming to
UCLA to tighten the bonds between the two
universities?
And then bravely, as she always is, she said:
You have to ask your chancellor.
So I went up to my chancellor and he's always
very short. And he said: What are you going
to do?
I said: I need hundred thousand guilders.
What for?
I said: For an annual lecture.
Ah, and what is in it for me?
I said: Well, within five years, I promise
you, we will find somebody who will continue
the lecture.
I didn't have a clue.
I was just making this up.
But together with Peg,
that was Jan,
that was Jo Anne.
Now, Jan.
I know
Jan from the late nineties, I think.
something like that.
And we became friends immediately.
And we, I mean, Ester, Jan, you and I. You
were not an Honorary Consul, but I have to
address you as an Honorary Consul now.
The same friends I have, and I'm
proud that they are in this room, I made
in 1983 in the Bay Area also
with an Honorary Consul.
I'm not befriending Honorary
Consuls, by the way.
It's not my hobby.
But it's a totally coincidence that the Consulate
General was in L.A. at that time.
They needed an Honorary Consul in the Bay Area,
and that was Johan Snapper sitting there
with his lovely wife Gerda Snapper.
And then they moved to San Francisco and they
needed an Honorary Consul in L.A. And that
was Jan Van Tilburg. Am I correct?
I'm an historian, so I hope this will be recorded.
Now I have to turn my page because I have
a piece of my one-hour lecture.
I recognized Jan immediately as a
special Honorary Consul. One that would
not limit himself to stranded strangers.
People, some idiots, who lost their passports,
or the obligate, but necessary, festivities
on Queen's Day or now King's Day.
Jan, you started initiatives to strengthen the
bonds between the U.S. and the Netherlands
in a broader sense of the word.
Our conversations were never small talks.
You were always talking about politics, economics,
especially culture. And the conversations
lasted mostly till the middle of the night
and continued the next day at
Jan and Jo Anne's most welcoming
and hospitable house in Malibu.
And it was then that I got to know Jan's
personality and just a few catch words.
And maybe Jo Anne is not right.
You may not agree with me, but we'll
see later this week. His modesty.
You begin to laugh.
Okay.
Marieke is laughing.
Oh, okay.
He's not modest.
His generosity. And I mean generosity
not only in a financial sense of the word.
His modesty in an intellectual sense of the
world, sharing his knowledge with young people,
with everyone. Always. Never
holding back. His zest for life.
His work ethics, his broad mindedness, his expertise,
ingenuity, broad fascination, especially his
unbelievable creativity.
For every problem, he had a solution.
And last but not least, his
incredible sense of humor.
Now, to end, I have to advices to you, Jan.
I could change them into orders,
because you are a knight,
I'm an officer. First, please stay
who you have always been.
Please.
Including the stubbornness.
The only thing that we, four of us,
can continue our friendship with.
And the second thing is more,
that's the last thing, is more about
thinking about Jo Anne.
Please, Jan, leave your horse outside.
Take your helmet off and
your armor before you go to bed.
I think the marriage with
Jo Anne will last long
if you do that.
So I know that you will applaud after every
speech, no matter how dull it was.
So if you do now, and you will,
applaud for Jan and Jo Anne, please.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Well, before we move to Professor Jacob,
I allowed you, despite my comments at the
beginning, to be a bit more elaborate than
the other speakers, because you traveled all
the way from the Netherlands to join us here,
and because everything you said was very true.
But I do have to be decidedly more Dutch
on other speakers, so I hope that is taken
into account.
Professor Jacob. Yes, I can assure you.
The thing that makes Jan and Jo Anne
so special is not simply that they are very
generous and gave us something that we desperately
needed to put Dutch studies
on the map in this university,
but they take an interest in what's actually
said in the lectures, in the process by which
someone is chosen, by the intellectual
stimulation that the lectures give.
And that means the world in a university setting.
Sir Van Tilburg, thank you so much.
Now I would like to invite to speak to us
Martin Kast, Professor of Molecular Microbiology
and Immunology at the Norris Comprehensive
Cancer Center of the University of Southern
California. Martin.
Dear Jan, 20 years ago, I came to L.A. to
become a professor at that other university
across town. The UCLA
people will recognize this joke. Of course,
that's the University of Southern California.
So a benefit of being in L.A.
was the presence of a Consulate.
And it was a big loss for L.A., when
the consulate moved to San Francisco.
However, that is when you stepped in and
became the Honorary Consul of the Netherlands
in L.A. And right from the start, your presence
for the Dutch community in L.A. was felt all over.
You created an office for consular
business at your architect firm.
But more than that, you showed up at almost
every Dutch event. Queen's Day, Kings Day,
Holland's Festival.
And you met Santa Claus
many times at the Dutch School.
Many Dutch social functions were held at your
beautiful architect's firm building. Personally,
I was also honored that you and Jo Anne
sponsored directly my cancer research.
This allowed me to train several
Dutch interns in my lab for three
of them, it dramatically changed their lives
as they stayed in the U.S., got married here
and found work in my lab.
So combined, I am deeply grateful for all
you have done for the Dutch community and
for me personally.
In my perspective, you were a knight in shining
armor all along, and I'm glad that the Dutch
Kingdom now has
acknowledged that, too. Thank you.
And now, before we ask Jan to address us,
to stay in this vocabulary, your brother in
arms and counselor, who's the Honorary Consul
of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in San Diego.
Henk.
Yeah.
I don't know how to address you these days.
I guess I'll keep it at Jan.
Okay.
Jan and I have kind of shared the
Southern California relationships with the
Dutch community. And we've done this in a
way that reflects the fact that we've lived
here for a long, long time.
Jan since the 1960s.
Since the 1960s, right?
Yes.
I since the 1980s, even before that.
And therefore, we have an affinity.
We've helped shape essentially the environment
in which we live, be it essentially through
architecture, be it in other situations.
You know, we've helped shape, you know, our
relationship with the community, not only
the Dutch community, but beyond that.
At the same time, we've never
really forgotten our roots.
We essentially, in heart, are Dutch people,
and therefore being an Honorary Consul is
the perfect situation, because on one side
you've got the affinity with the Dutch.
You at the same time have your network in
the Los Angeles environment.
That essentially has been an incredible, important
element, and that's why honorary consuls,
you know, play such an important role in the
overall relationships between Dutch government
and essentially the communities at large.
You know, not only the Dutch community but
the communities at large.
And the relationship that I've had
with Jan has been superb.
You know, Jan would essentially give me
a call, say: Hey, listen, there is something going
on in Orange County.
You're a lot closer than I am.
You do it.
And that's the way we work together.
And I've heard, you know, I've heard
the warm things saying about Jo Anne.
Yes, and Jan,
you're a renaissance person.
You're an artist, you're an architecture,
you are in design and everything else.
Never forget your better half.
She's the one that we really
ought to be thankful, as well.
Jan, I hope that, you know, in the coming
years, first of all, we've got a big, and I've
mentioned it already to Jo Anne. There's a big
event happening between Tijuana and San Diego
They were essentially selected to be the world
capital, the world capital in design. That's
happening in 2024. There will
be great opportunities to meet.
I would love you to be our guest, and
Jo Anne of course, to be there also.
Last but not least, I know it's a distance
between Malibu and Rancho Santa Fe, but I
tell you, we should get together, have a great
time, good meal and good company.
Thanks very much.
Thank you, Henk, for your warm words,
and also for your service to the kingdom.
So thank you for that.
And as our final speaker, I'm inviting
the knight Jan Van Tilburg.
I just realized sitting here for the last
half hour with this wonderful presentation,
some things are true that were said,
other things I still have to live up to.
But my grandfather, Johannes Van Tilburg,
also received this distinction in
So who to thank?
Of course, Jo Anne and the family, Marieke
and Matt, William, one member I didn't mention
who's at college in Boulder, Mattijes Kline.
He couldn't be here.
But really, I want to thank. In taking on
this role as Honorary Consul,
I really relied on my trappings in the architecture
firm. My partner Banvard, he always
said: Again, there comes another Dutch function.
And they helped me.
Of course, [. . .] my secretary
did, you know, all the work
because I really rely very much on help
in everything I do. I'm an untechnical
person as an architect. Hi-tech,
I don't have one of these, but my office
always, always stood behind me.
And then the Consul General.
I trained four of them.
And Henk, you've done that, too.
And then all of you, my friends. I'm humbled.
I'm very proud to have received this.
And it's been an incredible pleasure to fulfill
this role and more to come.
Thank you all very much.