Kees Steen

A memorial tribute to Thea & Kees can be seen at

http://dorothea-steen.virtual-memorials.com/

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Family videos with Thea & Kees can be viewed at

https://viddler.com/channel/ewsteen

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The life of Kees Steen – March 28, 1913 – August 23, 2007

(from the eulogy at the funeral service on Aug 28, 2007)

Kees has had many roles in his long and varied life.

He was a loving husband, a supporting father, and a doting grand father and great grandfather.

But above all, he was a true gentleman, someone who abides by the rules of society.

He set high standards for himself, and instilled the same in his children.

He was 50 years old when he left Holland on 14 November 1963, made the journey on ship Oranje, and arrived in Australia on 19 December 1963, with him were his wife Thea and three school age boys, Peter Erik and Kees jr.

Two older sons Hans and Louk, who had already made the journey earlier in the year, welcomed the family to Brisbane in December 1963.

Within two months, Kees had organised schooling for the children and bought a house for the family.

In the ensuing years, he made sure the young boys were able to play their chosen sports and supported them with pride and enthusiasm.

It was only a few years later that Kees became a grandfather, and earned the title of Opa.

Before Australia was Holland

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     Holland turned out to be a short stopover for Kees and the family from their previous life in Indonesia.

The life that the family had enjoyed so much in Indonesia was pulled from beneath them

with the end of the Dutch influence and emerging Indonesian nationalism.

So much so, that in the early sixties, the family regrouped in Kees' home town of Apeldoorn and attempted to set up for life in Holland.

The children found new schools, made new friends, but Kees never really enjoyed being back in the colder climate,

and was unable to find suitable employment.

It was not long that Kees found that life in Holland was not what he expected and the family decided to migrate to Australia.

The two older boys paved the way to Brisbane and the rest of the family followed less than six months later.

Australia was as close to Indonesia as Kees could be and it turned out to be everything and more that he and the family had expected.

He soon found work with the Brisbane council, and a new adventure began with a new life in a new country.

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   It was a very different start to the career he had begun in Indonesia.

In 1935, when Kees was 22, he started his working life in Indonesia.

It was the same career his father had chosen, and also the one his older brother Willem followed.

Sumatra, in the the Dutch colony, was the place were Kees joined Willem in the office of a Tobacco plantation.

Later, Kees found himself a job in a Dutch-American Rubber company.

It was there that his career took off and his administrative strengths emerged.

But then, World War 2 came to Asia, and turned life upside down for everyone. It wasn't long before Kees was a P.O.W.,

and subsequently shipped to Burma to work on the well known railway.

Kees has never been able to talk about the extreme hardship endured during those two horrific years on the railway,

except for the fact that his ordeal was only made bearable because he was never far separated from his brother Willem.

Willem and Kees were very close in age growing up in the Netherlands in a family which had already experienced a life in Indonesia.

They were both born in Indonesia. Their father had sailed across in a sailing ship from Holland to the then Dutch colony to make his fortune.

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  After the war, Kees started a new life. He married Thea, and together they formed a companionship full of love and happiness, that lasted for all of his next 60 years.

Life was good during post war years – children were born, work was rewarding, and the family had an idyllic life.

Conditions however slowly changed in the old Dutch colony, as now it was the Republic of Indonesia,

and it was with much sadness some fifteen years later, that Indonesia and all that it meant for everyone, had to be left behind.

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   Kees was born in Glugur on Indonesian island of Sumatra, on March 28, 1913

Second son of Willem and Johanna Steen, and brother of Willem Steen jnr, also born in Sumatra

In 1914 the family Steen left Sumatra for a short holiday in Holland, but were then unable to return to Indonesia because of World War 1.

They settled in Apeldoorn, because they liked the space and the bush of the area which reminded them of Indonesia.

In 1917 another brother, Govert, was born. And finally their sister Johanna Barbara was born in 1920.

Willem and Kees were very close and shared many recreational activities together.

They were members of the boy scouts and played hockey together for many years in the Apeldoorn Hockey Club.

In 1935, Kees followed his brother Willem to Indonesia.

It started a lifelong adventure full of new cultures, happiness, hardships and raising families.

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(these are the words for Kees from his wife Thea on August 28, 2007)

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Kees was a loving husband, and a wonderful kind-hearted father to his children, his grand children and great grand children.

I am so grateful for all the lucky and happy years, and the loving years that he gave us.

He never complained in his final difficult years.

He will always be with me.

Rest in peace my darling Kees

With all my love

Thea.