Huibert van Dorp

We met Huibert in 1968 when we moved to The Hague. He was 19 years old and had 5 brothers and 1 sister. Huibert was a student in the Royal Academy of Art. He introduced us to his mother and we were invited to participate in many van Dorp family parties. It was our introduction to Dutch culture and family life. Huibert's sister, Eliane, became a baby-sitter for our sons and his mother, Mevrouw (Mrs) van Dorp taught us how to behave like real Dutchmen. At her house, we learned to take ONE cookie when the cookie jar was passed at coffee time. We learned to eat sandwiches with a fork and knife and not with our hands. We learned that children (even adult children) spoke to their parents and teachers with a formal version of the word "you". We watched the annual TV New Year's Program with the van Dorp family, laughing at a famous comedian make jokes that we sort of understood. We learned to say, "Prosit" as a toast when we drank.

Huibert was studying to be graphic designer and would receive a diploma at the end of the four year study. Which, by the way, he didn't complete. Not for him. Huibert became a painter, sculptor, wood-worker, model-maker and etcher. Since then, he has become a well-known artist and has works in private collections all over the world. He is a family friend. Many of our family have paintings by Huibert hanging in their homes. Michael and Rikki have a beautiful breakfront painted by Huibert as well as many etchings and lithos. Peter and Rie have a child's desk and chair made for their daughter and several paintings. Huibert has become a member of the family in fact.

Several years ago, we commissioned Huibert to design and build a globe of the world in the style of the historical globes in museums. The result is spectacular. A rotating globe with places like the island group: Petite, Tiny and TinyTiny; the Mare Incognito; the Freedberg Family peninsula; the Bo Diddley Divide and poems by Dylan Thomas. It is filled with humor. Above it, he designed and built a Star Map with constellations that light up: Telescopium, for example. At night, in the dark, when we turn all the lights out, and turn on the globe with its heavenly lights, it is magical.

It is hard to picture the years from 1968 to the present without Huibert van Dorp. He used to spend vacations with my parents in Boston, and used my mother's best china to mix his paints. She called him "the Oaf", a term of endearment, which he uses nowadays to describe himself. "Ah yes, the Oaf is hungry," he will say. Lucky us to know Huibert as a married couple. He made Judy a beautiful sculpture when she graduated Law School at Leiden University with Mickey Mouse, and two bottles of Advocaat, a Dutch liquor, but making a joke of the word Advocaat, which means Lawyer.