Cornelis ("Kees") Zwaan died in his house at Doorn, The Netherlands, on June 16, 1999 from cancer. He underwent major surgery in March 1998 but recovered so fast that we and his other friends expected to have him with us much longer. It is hard to realize that he is gone.
Kees (officially "Cornelis") Zwaan died in his house in Doorn, The Netherlands, on June 16, 1999. Much too soon and unexpected | at least by me until his final deterioration; I had always thought that he would live as long as his parents, the more so when he had recoverated remarkably fast and well from major cancer surgery a year earlier. Most of this year he spent on completing "Solar and Stellar Magnetic Activity", a book co- authored with Karel Schrijver that is now in print (Cambridge University Press). Kees' total dedication to that large effort made me expect the same as I witness in other ocially retired but highly motivated curiosity-driven scientists: continuing interest into high age, with actually youthful enthousiasm and productivity.
The Utrecht Open Tower Telescope, recently renamed into "Dutch Open Telescope", is now being installed at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma (Fig. 1). Like THEMIS, the DOT is a solar telescope of novel design, is located at a superior site, aims at high spatial resolution, is suited to polarimetry, has been long in the making, and should start its scientific career in 1997. Unlike THEMIS, the DOT has no dome, no vacuum enclosure, no post-focus equipment, and no long-term funding.
Cornelis ("Kees") Zwaan was a well-known solar physicist at Utrecht University in The Netherlands. Together with his graduate students he also ventured out to other cool stars, concentrating on their magnetic activity. He has been a member of the AAS and the Solar Physics Division and had close ties with many American astro-physicists. He died from cancer in his house at Doorn, The Netherlands on June 16, 1999. He had had major surgery in 1998, but recovered so fast that we and his other friends expected to have him with us much longer. The end came far too soon.