Ben Hendriks

[JHertzman@xxxxxxx]

 I recently heard, but do not remember seeing on the digest, of the death of 
Ben Hendriks, the long-time editor and principle author of "Het
Klaverblaadje", the magazine of the "Stichtung Club Alfa Romeo Bezitters" one
of the Alfa Romeo owners' clubs of the Netherlands- probably the main one,
although I am not familiar enough with the others to say so. 

For each issue of "Het Klaverblaadje" Ben Hendriks invariably chose one Alfa
model (including prototypes and some noteworthy 'specials') as a topic,
researched it extensively with extensive cooperation of the Centro
Documentazione (with which he evidently had a superbly cordial relationship)
and wrote an exhaustive account of everything which could be known about that
car, illustrated copiously with archival photos, often previously unpublished.
Occasionally he added a monograph representing the scholarly work of another
exceptional authority- Carter Hendricks on Alfas in the Carrera Panamericana,
Peter Marshall on the numbering systems of the 1900s. The magazine also
contained much else on current club activities, new models, and whatever else
was newsworthy in the Alfa world- but the core of the publication was always
the scholarly product of his devotion to the history of Alfa Romeo.

He will be missed, obviously, by the members of his club and by others
familiar with the magazine, both by those who can read Dutch and by those of
us who can only wish that we did. I hope that somebody will print a
comprehensive anthology of his writings, fully illustrated as they originally
appeared, and that it will also be translated into English. It would be a
grand addition to the literature of the marque to which he was so dedicated,
and a most fitting memorial to an exceptional man. 

John Hertzman
Raleigh, N.C. 

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