Jan Broek grew up in the Netherlands and took his undergraduate and graduate work at the University of Utrecht. He completed his doctorate following extended travel and research in the United States. After a few years working in the Netherlands, he returned to America, spending most of his academic life in geography at the University of California at Berkeley (1936–46) and at the University of Minnesota (1948–70) , with a short period back at the University of Utrecht (1946–8) . Broek contributed substantially to human, historical and regional geography through his monograph on the Santa Clara valley in California, in several publications on Southeast Asia, in writings about geographic thought, and in works intended for students. Also, and perhaps as importantly, he led the development and expansion of the graduate programme at Minnesota to a position of eminence in world geography.