Cornelis (Kees) Groot of Nanaimo, BC, passed away peacefully on Monday June 24, aged 96 years. He was predeceased by his wife of 41 years, Gertruda (Truus), as well as his sister Hannie (Henk), and brother Rens (Ingrid). He is survived by his three children, Jobe (Kathrin), Hanneke (Rob), Erick (Joanne), five grandchildren, Donnie (his second wife of 25 years), stepdaughters Robyn Tonack (Guy), Heather Chapman (Ken), and four step-grandchildren.
Born in 1928 on the island of Java, Indonesia (at the time a colony of the Dutch Empire), Kees had an adventurous early life in the tropics and often shared vivid stories of his experiences during that time. The Japanese occupation of Indonesia, in 1941, led to his family’s internment in concentration camps for nearly four years. The hardships endured in camp, and the resilience and compassion demonstrated by his fellow campmates, profoundly shaped his character and career, and greatly affected his perspective throughout his entire life.
After the Japanese “surrender” in 1945, Indonesia declared independence from Dutch rule and the family, including family friend and future wife Truus, returned to the Netherlands to live in Amsterdam. Studying at the University of Amsterdam, Kees worked diligently to complete his education, obtaining his high-school graduation, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees in a few short years.
In 1956, he married Gertruda (Truus) and together they emigrated to Canada, settling first in Hamilton, Ontario where in 1957, their first child, Jobe, was born. Later that year, an employment opportunity came up with the Canadian Fisheries Research Board (now: Fisheries and Oceans Canada/DFO) at the Pacific Biological Station (PBS) in Nanaimo, and the young family relocated to Vancouver Island. At PBS, Kees began his research on the behaviour and migration of Pacific salmon, a topic that became the passion and professional focus of his entire career. In general, he was captivated by the wide range of topics encompassing ethology – the study of animal behaviour. Specifically, he was fascinated by how animals (especially birds and fishes), knew where they were, and where they needed to go in their respective environments, especially when that required migrating thousands of kilometers across novel habitats to complete their long-established life cycles.
In Nanaimo, Kees and Truus welcomed two more children, Hanneke (1958), and Erick (1960), and moved back and forth between the Netherlands and Canada twice during the 1960s.
During the early years at PBS, Kees researched the orientation and migration of juvenile sockeye salmon in Babine Lake and pursued this topic for his PhD thesis in ethology. He completed his doctorate in 1963 through the University of Leiden. With his newly minted doctorate in pocket, Kees was invited to serve as the Director of the Netherlands Institute for Undersea Research (NIOZ) in Den Helder, where served from 1966-68. After two years in this role, Kees was once again drawn back to Canada when he received an invitation to return to continue and expand his research on orientation and migration of salmon. The family returned to Nanaimo in late 1968.
Back on Vancouver Island, Kees and Truus raised their family in the Departure Bay area through the 1970s, cultivating in their children a deep love for nature and life through lively family discussions, numerous family outings, camping trips, and hiking excursions together.
In the early 1980s, the “empty nesters” found a rural property in the Yellowpoint area and proceeded to build an eclectic dream home. They enjoyed the idyllic rural setting – living “at the edge of the grid” with a large vegetable garden and greenhouse, as well as many new neighbourhood friends – for more than a decade.
During this time, Kees worked with a cadre of world-class fisheries scientists, biologists, and technicians at PBS, as he continued his work on salmon orientation, and engaged in various other collaborative research projects. In the early 1980s, he was among the first wave of researchers reporting in the scientific literature about early environmental signals of ocean and global climate changes. His research on ocean migration patterns of returning sockeye salmon helped identify unprecedented, large-scale changes in long-established ocean and inshore migration patterns of these fish that were strongly correlated with significant changes in coastal Pacific Ocean temperatures around Vancouver Island. Kees and colleagues hypothesized that these changes were due to large-scale warming trends in the Pacific Ocean; environmental changes and signals that were harbingers of global climate change. In addition, he, along with several other colleagues, edited and published two comprehensive volumes on life history patterns and ecological physiology of Pacific salmon. These scientific books were specifically initiated in an effort to capture and consolidate the wealth of knowledge and expertise of colleagues locally, and other salmon scientists nationally and internationally; as many of them were entering the latter years of their professional careers.
Following a stimulating, productive, and rewarding career, Kees retired in 1993 but continued to remain active as a biological consultant and advisor on projects related to: salmon behaviour, habitat conservation, interactions of salmonid enhancement and fish farming with wild salmon, and climate change impacts on salmon populations and beyond.
In 1998, after several years of declining health and illness, Truus – Kees’ beloved wife of 41 years – passed away due to complications from Parkinson’s disease.
Not long after, another adventure in Kees’ life started, when he met Donnie Richmond. The two had many interests in common and chose to marry later in 1998. Together, with a shared spirit of adventure and love of travel, Kees and Donnie found a beautiful cliff-top home on Gabriola Island, which served as homebase for their travels together to over 50 different countries, over the next 25 years, and for many gatherings of the “extended family” and numerous friends from around the world.
When not travelling far and wide during his retirement, Kees had the time to pursue further his life-long curiosity about humans and the societies they have created. He ultimately encapsulated his thoughts into one simple, yet deeply philosophical, question, “Who are we?”, which he further partitioned into three slightly more specific questions: “Where do we come from?”, “What are we doing here?”, “Where are we going?”. These questions shaped his professional and academic interests in nature and ecosystems, as well as his curiosity about how human beings communicate with each other and choose to live their lives. In our experience, he shared with our mother a perpetual “posture of curiosity” and a deep love of learning, of the natural world, and a profound interest in the positive things human beings were capable of.
When we were kids – and complaining about something – his perennial question to us was: “So, … what’s good about today?”, which was often followed by, “You can choose to make it a good day!” His consistent choice to focus (and help us focus) on what was possible, what was positive, and to be curious about what might be happening around us, influenced each of us deeply. This outlook was an immense gift and remains a source of inspiration for each of us to this day – despite it sometimes being very infuriating to us as “know-it-all” teens, at the time.
We consider ourselves blessed to have had Kees as our father. Kees gave us each the room and support we needed to make our own discoveries (and mistakes) and over time, our respective relationships became filled with mutual deep respect, caring, love, and gratitude.
Kees Groot will be remembered for his insatiable and deep curiosity about life, his love for his family, and his dedication to scientific inquiry and environmental stewardship. A part of his legacy lives on in his children, grandchildren, extended family, students, colleagues, and all who had the privilege of knowing him.
With deep love, much respect, and eternal gratitude, thank you Dad!
We bid you adieu; Until we meet again!
- Jobe, Hanneke & Erick
PS: A small celebration of life will be held for family and friends. As much as Kees/Dad loved flowers – especially orchids!!! – we respectfully ask that in lieu of flowers, donations instead be made to either the Heart and Stroke Foundation (https://www.heartandstroke.ca/donations), or the Pacific Salmon Foundation (https://psf.ca/donate/).
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