Radboud University To Name New Paths After Students And PhD Candidates
Eight new paths on the Radboud University campus will be named after former students or PhD candidates. The University’s proposal was submitted to the municipal council, which agreed to the plans on Wednesday 30 November 2022.
Following the demolition of most of the buildings on Thomas van Aquinostraat and the construction of the Maria Montessori building, among others, the University laid several new paths on the southern part of the campus – and those paths needed names. Below is a list of the names and some background information about the individuals. On the accompanying map you can see where the paths are located.
A map of the Radboud University campus with names and locations of the new paths
On the accompanying map you can see where the paths are located.
Douwine Norelpad
Douwine Norel (1909-2000) was the first woman to receive a doctorate in medicine in Nijmegen (1956). Norel was also the first woman to be registered as a surgeon in the Netherlands, in 1941. She worked as a doctor in both Africa and the Netherlands.
Rein van der Veldepad
Rein van der Velde (1894-1982) was Radboud University’s first PhD candidate (1924). He taught Classics at the grammar school in Amersfoort.
Fritz Polakpad
Fritz Polak (1917-1943) was a young Jewish man who was forced to abandon his law studies at Radboud University in 1941 by order of the occupying forces and was murdered in Auschwitz in 1943.
M.F. da Costa Gomezpad
Moises Frumencio da Costa Gomez (1907-1966) from Curaçao was a law student in the 1920s and 1930s. He was president of the Government Council from 1951 to 1954 and is widely regarded as being the first prime minister of the Netherlands Antilles.
Gerard Leckiepad
Gerard Leckie (1943-1982) was born in Suriname and was a psychology student in the 1960s and 1970s. He was a lecturer and dean at the University of Suriname. Leckie was regarded by army chief Desi Bouterse as an instigator of the student protests in Suriname and was one of 15 victims of the December murders in 1982.
Ida Groenewoutpad
Ida Groenewout (1909-1999) was, among other things, president of the Protestant Students Club, a branch of NSC Carolus Magnus, in the mid-1930s, making her the first female student at the University to hold such a key administrative position in a mixed student association.
Boukje en Roos-pad
Boukje Niewold (1978 – 2001) and Roos de Jong (1977 – 2001) studied art history and archaeology. In the summer of 2001, they and some fellow students were on their way to participate in an excavation project in Pompeii when the van they were travelling in veered off the road in southern Germany. This accident claimed the lives of Boukje and Roos, as well as Jos de Waele, Professor of Classical Archaeology.
Boukje and Roos represent all students in the University’s history who died during their studies.
Thea Ivenspad
Thea Ivens (1906-1997) was one of the first female board members of NSC Carolus Magnus. Ivens played an active role in society, including as a member of Nijmegen’s municipal council, and at the University, where she sat on the Old Members’ Council and the Advisory Board of Nijmeegs Universiteitsblad.
Gerard Disveldpad
Gerard Disveld (1928-2002) worked on the Heyendael estate as a gardener (and animal caretaker) from the 1950s until the early 1990s at the very location where the Faculty of Medicine and the St. Radboud Teaching Hospital (which both became part of Radboud university medical center) were founded and developed. Disveld lived on Houtlaan and each day as he went to work, where he was a well-known and respected figure, he took the path that would eventually be named after him. When he took retirement, his colleagues erected the Disveldpad street sign in his honour. This was done outside the municipal regulations, but the sign remained and the path became widely known as the Disveldpad. Now, in 2022, the path’s name has been given official status.