Alexander Jacobus Maria Van Der Velden

Alexander Jacobus Maria Van der Velden, began his fight with acute myeloid leukemia — a rare blood cancer — on June 4. Sadly on the morning of June 30, Alex's liver, kidneys and finally his heart fell silent — having endured multiple rounds of chemotherapy. His body was free of the blood cancer, but the treatment ravaged his vital organs.

Alex was a voracious reader of history books, The Economist, Sun Tzu and in the last month — Frans de Waal’s book on empathy. Alex knew he lacked this ability to connect with other people. Still — he always tried to connect with others no matter how awkward the conversation.

He studied aerospace engineering at Delft University — the oldest and largest public technological university in the Netherlands. He earned a PhD at Stanford University.

Funny story — Alex considered business school once and attended a strategy class. 5 minutes into a business strategy class, he thought, “These people are idiots.” (Alex shared this story with me as I was about to start my MBA at Emory University. See? No empathy.)

Alex was passionate about engineering and research. He loved building algorithms. During the Great Recession, he built a model evaluating the risk of peer-to-peer lending. He explained the intricacies of his model to me. Having lost my job at the time, I had other concerns — again, empathy...

My vibrant sister, Gina, changed Alex. In the words of his sister, Christianne: “Gina was the love of his life. She turned him into a family man.” Well, Christianne, he so loved and respected you. He believed you to be wise beyond your years as a young girl and the kindest person he ever knew. In the days after his parents passed in 2019, Alex expressed his pride about how his entire family came together to say goodbye to his parents in their home cathedral, H. Georgius kerk, in Kruisland, Netherlands.

“It was a beautiful ceremony, Tha. Everyone from the community was there.”

Although we will not be able to mourn together in the ancient cathedral of his ancestors, we will still mourn and remember this brilliant husband, father, and engineer.

Alex is survived by his wife, Gina, and two sons, Max and Jett. I will truly miss our patio conversations, my brother, friend and mentor. Peace go with you, Alex.

I’ll take care of the rest…