Louis van de Laar

Louis van de Laar in 1964

Louis Josephus Maria van de Laar (* December 24, 1921 in 's-Hertogenbosch , Province of North Brabant ; † January 25, 2004 in Bergen op Zoom , Province of North Brabant) was a Dutch politician of the Katholieke Volkspartij (KVP), who, among other things, between 1963 and in 1965 he was State Secretary in the Marijnen Cabinet in the Ministry of Education, Art and Science and from 1965 to 1981 mayor of Bergen op Zoom.

Life

Van de Laar, son of a cabinet maker and dealer, began studying history and economics at the Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen after visiting the Roman Catholic Sint Jans Lyceum in 's-Hertogenbosch in 1939 . During his studies, after the end of the Second World War in 1945, he began working as an editor for the daily newspaper Oost-Brabant . After studying at the University of Paris Sorbonne and the École pratique des hautes études (EPHE) in Paris between 1945 and 1946, he completed his studies in 1947 and was then editor of the daily newspaper Het Binnenhof until 1948 , before working between September 1948 and the September 1, 1953 as a history teacher at the Catholic Onze Lieve Vrouwe Lyceum in Breda . Subsequently, he was director of the Catholic Middelbare Meisjesschool in Delft from September 1, 1953 to September 1, 1955 and then between September 1, 1955 to October 24, 1963, Rector of the Catholic Lodewijk Makeblijde College in Rijswijk .

On October 24, 1963, Prime Minister Victor Marijnen appointed him State Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Art and Science (Staatssecretaris van Onderwijs, Kunsten en Wetenschappen) in his government and held this office until April 14, 1965. He held this position in particular responsible for youth education, youth work, public education, sport, art and nature conservation. For his services he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Dutch Lion . In addition, he was appointed Grand Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau on April 20, 1965 .

Then van de Laar, who was also awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Gregory , succeeded Leonard Antoon Hubert Peters as Mayor of Bergen op Zoom on October 16, 1965 . He held this office until his early retirement due to illness on September 1, 1981, whereupon the VVD politician and previous mayor of Voorst Pieter Zevenbergen became his successor.

He was also committed to cultural cooperation with Belgium and was awarded the Dutch Language Union Prize ( Nederlandse Taalunie -Prijs) in 1992 for these services .

Web links

• CV in Parlement & Politiek