Obituary: Rob Berlijn
Rob Berlijn, founding editor of Hydro International and director of Hydro Consult, died unexpectedly from heart failure 9th January 2007 at his home in Groot Ammers at the age of only 56. Rob Berlijn was born in Rotterdam in 1950 and grew up in the same city. He studied civil engineering at Delft and fulfilled his compulsory military service in Suriname (at that time part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands). As a military man, Rob participated in a project under the auspices of KLM Aerocarto in the interior of Suriname that entailed a combination of jungle training and geodetic work. His interest was aroused and he loved the work so much, he stayed on under contract to the same organisation to work on the Suriname Geodetic Datum. He also assisted in positioning equipment tests that led to development of the Motorola Miniranger. Rob was the only land surveyor allowed, against the normal rule, to repair optical instruments such as levels and theodolites in the field. He was also involved in one of the last classic First Order projects, with KLM Aerocarto in Saudi Arabia. From 1973 till 1983 Rob worked for NESA, and for Decca Surveys. For Decca, Rob carried out projects for Shell, while he lived with his family in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Moving to Indonesia, he joined Intersite Surveys, where his work included the upkeep of hydrographic equipment onboard an Indonesian survey vessel.
Next stop in an exciting life was Singapore, were he set up and maintained the positioning fixing chain Veripos Far East, a subsidiary of Osiris. After a management position at SEABED in IJmuiden, The Netherlands, which gave Rob the chance to initiate and organise a perfect tenth anniversary celebration for the Hydrographic Society Benelux, he again moved on to warmer climes. This time it was St Maarten in the Caribbean. When projects here were completed in 1998 he decided to move back to The Netherlands, to the family farm, beautifully situated near the river Lek, a tributary of the River Rhine, in the ‘dredging belt’. He set up his own company, Hydro Consult, into which he could pour all his creativity, professional energy and experience. The result was success in both trade and consultant activities. But it was not only his own company that benefited from his energy and creativity: he was on the organising committee for both HYDRO ’96 in Rotterdam and the last HYDRO ’06 in Antwerp. And he was one of the founding editors of Hydro International, the idea for this magazine being born at HYDRO ’96. His creative ideas and ability to write attractively contributed significantly to the magazine, not least in the features he wrote himself. Rob Berlijn was a very social man - he definitely had no enemies - who enjoyed company and entertaining with a drink, good food and a joke. We will miss the editorial board meetings in the orchard at his farm, with a beer and a bar in the former hay-barn. To Rob everyone was equal; he did not distinguish between races or positions in life. He loved the local food wherever he was. Rob was a brilliant self-educated surveyor, hardworking and good at improvisation, an adventurer and a romantic. Anything a bit out of the ordinary and Rob was in the frontline, resulting in many amusing stories. Only one, alas, did he submit to HI; it forms the introduction to a feature article passing on practical information for surveyors, see page 21: typically Rob, not only of his writing ability but also his natural gift for getting along with all kinds of people, his humour and talent for improvisation.
The hydrographic community will miss his passion, his enthusiasm and his social personage, and I am convinced everyone who had the luck to meet and work with him will subscribe this. The great attendance at his funeral was a sign of the many friends he had.
Rob had a special love for Suriname, where his interest for surveying began and where he returned to work on various projects throughout his career. During his last consultancy project here in summer 2006 he decided to spend a fourteen-day holiday in Suriname over the Christmas period to show his wife Elly all the places of which he had special memories. It was just two days after returning from a fantastic holiday together that Rob suffered a severe heart failure and passed away. He is survived by his wife Elly, his son Lennaert (22) and the twins, daughter Leonie and son Rogier (20). We wish his family the strength they need to go on without this fine family man. Rob Berlijn, founding editor Hydro International, born 12th March 1950, died 9th January 2007.
