In Memoriam Tjaart Imbos

It is with sadness that we received the message that our former colleague Tjaart Imbos passed away on 27 May. Tjaart worked at Maastricht University from late 1975, when UM was still known as Rijksuniversiteit Maastricht, until his retirement in early 2011. After a long career at the Educational Research & Development Department and secondment at the Statistics section of the then Department of Medical Informatics and Statistics, he moved into what a few years later in 1990 would become the Department of Methodology and Statistics. As an associate professor, he led the review, coordination and implementation of statistics education in the then Faculty of Health Sciences. Until his retirement, education remained his core task and great love at work. Afterwards, Tjaart kept in touch and continued to show an interest in our department.

Last year, Tjaart became seriously and, as it soon turned out, incurably ill. In the time he had left, he was fortunately still able to experience many special moments. In particular the births of a few grandchildren, for which he had wanted to be here. But after that, he could not hold on any longer.

We wish Tjaart's wife Nelly and his children Nienke, Sanne and Jelle, their partners and children much strength in bearing this loss. The farewell was not unexpected, but that makes it no less definite or painful. We too honour his memory. We will not forget him.

Colleagues of the FHML and FPN Department of Methodology and Statistics