My father was a schoolteacher and my mother came from a teacher's family.
I visited the Gymnasium in The Hague and passed my final examination (in the sciences section) in 1943.
At this time, my work on the SPS power supplies had just come to an end; I joined a study group on the pp project and an experimental team studying cooling in a small ring (ICE).
Nevertheless, if I have at times been able to make original contributions in the accelerator field, I cannot help feeling that to a certain extent my slightly amateur approach in physics, combined with much practical experience, was an asset.
