A life of service A life well lived
BY ROB BOWER
Peter van Duren
BDSc (WA), MB BS (Adelaide), FRCS
Peter van Duren was born 1942 in the Dutch town of Boekel, about 20km from the German border. Not a good address at the time. He was the eldest of Mathys and Maria van Duren’s three children. When the family arrived in Fremantle from war-weary Europe in June 1952, Peter was nine years’ old and spoke no English. He attended Armadale High School for three years and was awarded an Education Department Endowment Trust Scholarship to complete his schooling at Kent Street Senior High School. He was obviously bright. None of this was known to his classmates in 1961 when he started at Dental School at UWA. He was simply “Dutch”, something of a tearaway and obviously bright as well as dextrous (we started constructing technique complete denture prostheses and a cast partial denture in first year!). During the five years of the course, firm friendships were forged, and one standout relationship developed between “Dutch” and Bob Heady. They share-farmed together on leased land at Kalannie near Koorda to support their studies. University breaks and occasional weekends were spent seeding, spraying, and harvesting. They were such successful farmers that each boasted a new car at the end of one season. Peter and Bob added spice to the dental course. Like saffron, they brought out the best in us and added colour to a time-demanding and rather grey university course.
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EDITION 7 | 2021 Western Articulator
