Kees W. Bolle

BIDDEFORD - Kees was born Cornelis Willem Bolle in Dordrecht, The Netherlands, a city he was proud to point to as the oldest city in Holland. Like most Dutchmen, his Christian name was shortened to the more familiar form of "Kees" (pronounced like "case"). When people in this country asked him about his "unusual" name, he was quick to reply that "every third boy in Holland is called Kees."
In 1933, he developed diabetes, a mere 10 years after the discovery of insulin. In the same year, his father was diagnosed with Parkinson's, a time when few medications were available to treat the disease. Shortly before World War II, Kees' family moved to the Dutch coastal village of Oostvoorne which was occupied by the Germans until liberation in 1945. Shortly after the war, Kees entered the University of Leiden, planning to study theology and become a minister. His plans were dramatically changed by a year's study as an exchange student at the University of Chicago in the early 1950s; he returned a few years later to enroll in a graduate program for the History of Religions, becoming Mircea Eliade's first doctoral student. Late in the '50s, he sailed to India with his first wife Pien and young daughter Sonja, where they lived for two years while he wrote his Ph.D. dissertation. Upon his return to America, he was offered a position at Brown University, in the Religion Department.
In the mid 1960s, he accepted an invitation to join the history department at UCLA where he set up what became a nationally recognized undergraduate major in the interdisciplinary study of religion. He remained at UCLA for 25 years where he also met his second wife, Sara, a doctoral student in Ancient Near Eastern history and languages. In 1991, they moved to Portland, Ore., when Sara was offered a position at Reed College, where Kees also taught, with her, in the Religion Department. In 2000, he, Sara and their Maine Coon cat drove eight days across the country to their new home in Maine where Sara attended medical school. Kees himself taught humanities classes at the medical school, the University of New England; at her graduation, he received The "Donna Jones Moritsugu Award" presented to a family member of an osteopathic medical student who was also involved in the osteopathic educational and social community.
Kees was renown for his intellectual passion, a trait that often incurred the wrath of institutions and the disgruntlement of colleagues. His unwillingness to step down from his intellectual principles made him a formidable disputant. As a severe diabetic for 80 years, with no long-term effects on vision, kidneys, or limbs, he held a lasting distrust of statistics and all medical practitioners, vowing to outlive his doctors. He had a relentless mischievous sense of humor and possessed an inimitable laugh. His son once remarked, as a young teenager, how embarrassing it was to be at the movies with his father whose sole laughter and guffaw would ring through an otherwise quiet theatre. That ability to fill space was also evident when he lectured; he never required a microphone no matter how many hundreds of students filled the hall. He was a spellbinding lecturer, able to convey intense emotions with facial gestures. He once said that, what he had most wanted to do in life was to be a clown, but he had to settle for his second choice which was to be a professor.
Kees was extremely fond of his one single-malt scotch each late afternoon, which changed in his later years to a Bombay Sapphire martini. His talent for hosting parties was well-known, especially his ability to create spontaneous toasts and heart-felt speeches. While at UCLA, he held an annual New Year's Eve party meant only for his graduate students, always topping the evening's discussions at midnight with an excellent glass of champagne and a reading of Psalm 90. He was a life-long student of classical music and played his piano or clarinet daily.
During his final decade of life in Maine, he became an official member of the Quaker community, following his passion for social justice and equity. Up until his early 80s, he continued to ride his bicycle as only a Dutchman could ride, and he enjoyed quiet trips on Maine rivers with his wife in their canoe. He was well-known in his neighborhood for foraging in his Maine forest for dead trees, felling them with only a small axe, dragging them to the house to split and chop them, in preparation for long Maine winters-all without the use of powered tools and always donning a sports coat. He maintained his intellectual productivity until the last few years of his life, publishing a host of books shortly after settling in Maine. His lengthy article on "Myth and Mythology" in Encyclopedia Britannica's 15th ed remained in place until the encyclopedia recently moved to electronic format. His intellectual interests, though specializing in the religious traditions of ancient India, centered on the general study of the history of religions. His books include The Freedom of Man in Myth (1968; 2010), The Persistence of Religions (1971), The Enticement of Religion (2002), a translation of the Bhagavadgita (1979), and a translation from the French of Jean Bottero's The Birth of God, The Bible and the Historian (2000). He also published Ben's Story, Holocaust Letters with Selections from the Dutch Underground Press (2001) which was a collection of letters written by his close high school friend who eventually succumbed in Bergen-Belsen; the translated letters are interspersed with selections from the Dutch underground press written at the same time of history, to illustrate how the individual life of a young Jewish boy and the wider political/social world of the War were intertwined. At the time of his death, Kees' final manuscript, Religion Among People, a study of the relationship of religion and politics, is in the final stages of editing.
The last few years of Kees' life, as his wife was finishing her medical training as a resident, were marred by progressive cognitive decline and ensuing complications. A recent massive stroke robbed him of the ability to walk, read, write, discuss, or play music. His physical and mental strength, however, and ability to recover function were remarked upon by every physician, nurse, physical and occupational therapist who worked with him over the course of several years. Though unable to speak, he used his life-long ability to convey thought and emotion through facial expressions. True to his Quaker spirit and theological training, he remained at peace, with a keen sense of life's frailty.
During the final month of Kees' life, his heart rate remained in the 20-30s, after developing heart block, though his only outward symptom was increased fatigue. His smile and grin continued to fill any room with glee. He died peacefully, gently and with dignity in the still of night, held tightly in the arms of his wife Sara, of 35 years.
He is survived by Sara; first wife Pien (Los Angeles, Calif.); his daughter Sonja, son-in-law Patrick and grandson Luke (Los Angeles, Calif.); his son Paul, daughter-in-law Janet and grandson Walter (Davis, Calif.); his older sister Trien (The Netherlands); his nieces Willy and Els, and nephew Henk (The Netherlands).
A lively festivity will be held in conjunction with a Quaker "Celebration of Life," at Kees' home in Biddeford on Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012, beginning at 2 p.m. For more information call 207-283- 0861. All are welcome.
Rather than gifts or flowers, please consider a donation to the
national arm of the
Quaker community:
American Friends
Service Committee
1501 Cheery St.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19102