(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
IN MEMORIAM
...Annie Kerkhof...
(1943 - 2022) |
 Former regional administrator and Robur '58-icon Annie Kerkhof passed away
Nederlands
 APELDOORN (Neth.) -
Annie Kerkhof, who was a very active regional board-member for eight years, passed away on Thursday, November 10 at age 79.
Mrs. Kerkhof has been a member of the board in Rayon Oost and District Oost, also supported regionals clubs and for over fifteen years, she was a confidant-person for the KNBSB.
Besides that, she has been a driving force within baseball- and softball-club Robur '58 in Apeldoorn since the eighties.
The memorial service was held in private.
Anna Hendrika (Annie) Kerkhof-Jochems was born on September 24, 1943 in the small village of Lieren, which is located close to Beekbergen.
Both villages belong to the Municipality of Apeldoorn, where she lived for the majority of her life and became very involved in local baseball- and softball-club Robur '58.
After already having been active for Robur '58, Annie Kerkhof took on several administrative duties since the late eighties.
In 1988, she became the so-called game-secretary for the softball-section of the club, something she did for seven years.
In 1992, she took on the same task for the baseball-section, succeeding Jeroen Bockweg, who several years later worked on the Head Office of the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Asscioation (KNBSB).
In the meantime, Annie also looked over the peanutball-section since 1990 and handled the recreation-section as well since 1991.
Oh, besides that, she also was the person to contact at Robur '58 whether or not the fields were playable in case of rain, something she did for some six years.
And so, Annie became a driving force within the Apeldoorn-club.
Since 1988, she handled several of these administrative duties for over thirty years.
That includes a period of over ten years as the club's general secretary.
In this last position, she handled the membership-administration, overlooked the activities on the beautiful site of the club and also was the counselor of the club.
Some fifteen years ago, Annie Kerkhof also was involved in talks which led to a closer working relationship with WSB, another baseball/softball-club in Apeldoorn.
In the first ten or so years that Annie Kerkhof did her administrative duties at Robur '58, she worked closely together with other well-known club-administrators, such as Jacob Brons, Jan Grefhorst, Gerard van Beek, Wil van Beek and Jan Kuipers.
But also with Reinhold Jahn, another club-icon of Robur '58.
It was Jahn (who passed away in 2005 at the much too young age of 54) who created the Apeldoorn Baseball Series (later also softball) in 1989.
Through the years, Annie Kerkhof also has been very active in the organization of the annual international tournament at the site of Robur '58.
The successful tournament ended in 2018 after thirty editions.
After the passing of Reinhold Jahn, his wife Loekie Jahn-Enklaar oversaw the tournament and also went on the become the club's chairman.
In that period, Annie became the club's secretary.
In that position, she more or less succeeded her daughter Regine, who had been the secretary several years earlier.
Because of her activities within Robur '58, Annie Kerkhof also went on to become a board-member of the regional boards.
In 1990 and 1991, she was the treasurer in the board of what was then called Rayon Het Oosten (Rayon East), which was then was chaired by Henny Jansen.
Another very active person in these years for both Robur '58 as well as the Rayon/District was Egbert van der Sluis.
After his passing in 1994, the annual award for the Most Talented National Team Softball Player Under-23 was named after him.
...Annie with husband Henk at the rainy...
...World Championship Softball...
...in 2014 in Haarlem (Netherlands)...
(© Private-photo) |
From 1992 on, the Rayons were reorganized into four Districts.
In 1994, the board of District Oost stepped down and early 1995, new board was elected.
Amongst the new board-members was Annie Kerkhof, who was the secretary for four years and treasurer for two years.
In those six years, there were some 46 clubs part of this District with almost 6,000 active players.
When the new District Oost-board was installed in 1995, Ed Klokkers was the chairman, the other members were Frans van Dijk (treasurer), Loes Dalmeijer, Hans Josemans, Ruud Klomp, Henk Martens and Fred Monden.
In 1996, Ruud van Zetten became the new chairman of District Oost, while Ruud van der Horst took over as treasurer.
In 1998, Jelis van de Burg and Frits Budding became new board-members.
Some more changes followed in 1999.
Gerben Hardeveld became the new chairman, while Fred Mazurel became the new secretary, succeeding Annie, who became treasurer, while Gui Broeders succeeded Budding.
In October 1999, Hardeveld stepped down and Annie Kerkhof became the interim-chairman.
With that, she was both chairman and treasurer through 2000.
In that year, Jelis van de Burg also returned in the board after a two-year absence, but unfortunately, he passed away a few months later at age 56.
A new alignment was created from 2001 on, as the four District now became three Regions.
In the Regio Midden (Central Region), Rob Schriel was the so-called Regio Manager, while Annie Kerkhof handled the so-called club-support, which she did for four years.
As 'club-supporter' in the Regio Midden, Annie Kerkhof also was a member of the Recreational Board of the KNBSB in 2001-2004.
Thereafter, this board was dissolved, as a new set-up was created.
In 2001-2003, the other members of this board were Ruud van Zetten (chairman), Charles van der Meijs (coordinator), Anneke Groeneveld, Ed Klokkers, Walter Wallé (on behalf of District Noord) and René Roovers (District Zuid).
In 2004, after Van Zetten and Klokkers had left, Gijs Selderijk also was part of this board.
In 2004 and 2005, Annie Kerkhof did volunteery administrative work for some two days per week at the Head Office of the KNBSB in Nieuwegein.
In 2007, she was appointed by the KNBSB as its counselor for sexual intimidation and would serve in this position through this year.
In 2012, the KNBSB celebrated its 100th anniversary.
Leading up to the celebrations in that year, a jubilee-commission was created.
Annie Kerkhof was one of the three members, the other two were Gerard Vaandrager and René Blok.
This commission was the sounding board for the KNBSB-board.
Through the years, Annie Kerkhof has been very active in the eastern district of the country and became a beloved and wellknown person, not only within Robur '58, but also at other clubs in this region.
With that, she had many acquaintances within the Dutch baseball- and softball-family.
Annie enjoyed watching baseball- and softball-games and/or activities.
Not only at her own club, but with her husband Henk, she frequently visited games of international baseball- and softball-tournaments in the Netherlands.
She will be missed by many.
The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News offers his condolences to Annie's husband Henk, daughters Regine and Anouk, grandchildren and other family and friends and wishes them a lot of strength with this big loss.
(November 17)
|
