A brief chronology of a life well-lived

In memory of René Hakkenberg van Gaasbeek
Sept. 28 1942 - April 18, 2022

1942

René Hakkenberg van Gaasbeek is born on September 28, 1942, to Henri (“Hakkie”) Carl Marie Hakkenberg van Gaasbeek and Geertruida (“Oma”) van Westerloo in Curacao.
- His brother, Peter, is born two years earlier on January 14, 1940.
- The brothers call each other “Jack” their whole lives and no one knows which one’s which.

1945

Hakkie travels to England to fly during WWII and the family is stationed in Larchmont, New York. They leave Curacao for Miami in January, then take a train to New York.
René is nicknamed “Bunch” in New York, which Oma calls him his whole life.
The family leaves New York in April on the Queen Elizabeth and lands in Liverpool, where Hakkie is waiting.
They stay in Bristol. René remembers Hakkie bringing bananas home, which he bought in Lisbon.
René is sent to Amsterdam, Holland, and stays with grandparents.

1946-1947

The family moves to Amstelveen, close to the Schiphol airport.
- René remembers the many houses in a row and all attached to one another, with frozen canals in between which he would cross to see his friends. One time, trying to keep up with Peter, he almost fell through the ice.
- René remembers his time with Peter: he and Peter used to put coins in foil on rail tracks to see the imprint of the coin on the foil once the trains passed, and the two would go fishing with hooks on pieces of string.
- René’s maternal grandfather was a furniture maker and would work in the basement of the house; René fondly remembers the smell of the wood glue, which was made from cow bones. The whole house smelled of this glue.
- René attends Kindergarten.

1948

After the war, the family moves back to Curacao for Hakkie’s job at KLM, where he would fly back and forth to Amsterdam, and hold other managerial jobs at the Curacao airport.
At first, the family lives in the Pasnggrahan Hotel, a Government Hotel. They then move to a house very close to the runway at the airport.
René was always very proud when Hakkie would fly a plane. He remembers how the family would watch him land, sitting on the rocks high above the field. René would love aviation all his life.

1949

Hakkie acquires dive tanks from Jacques Cousteau in Paris, and brings them back to Curacao.
With a friend who owned an oxygen company (for welding), and was an ex-Dutch Marine, Hakkie rigged hoses to these tanks (BCs and regulators didn’t exist then). They filled them with air (not oxygen) and used rigged masks to dive in the ocean. These were likely the first scuba dives in the Antilles, and perhaps the whole Caribbean.

1950

The family moves into a plantation house. The house is on about 20 acres of farm land, has a big garden, a well, a big tank of water where they swim, and trees they could climb and which grow mispel fruit. The boys have a personal aquarium in their bedroom, filled with fish they caught themselves.
The family then moves into in a house that Hakkie built, which is now owned by the owner of Divi Divi.
A Curacaon women, named Aappa, was their maid. They became great friends.
Since pilots were big heroes in those days, Hakkie would fly the Dutch Queen Juliana to Bonaire, using a runway somewhere near Rincon. “On that little potato field there?” said Queen Juliana, as they approached the landing for the first time.
Dutch Prince Berhardt and Queen Juliana borrow Hakkie’s convertible Buick whenever she visits.

1951-1953

With Ibo Domcasse, a friend since birth, Hakkie would take Prince Bernhardt diving in Curacao, and René was allowed to come along.
Hans Hass was friends with Hakkie, and they would go diving in Curacao.
Throughout the early 1950s, the family takes several vacations to Ft. Myers, FL and Bonaire for fishing.
René would fish and dive everyday, and remembers always being in the water or hunting for doves and iguanas with pellet gun or slingshot. Together with friend Jan Kelder, René would cook and eat potatoes thrown into a fire.The whole family would go spearfishing together (which was legal then).
René attends elementary school in Curacao. René was always fighting to be number one in the class, but usually came in second to Jopie van Buren.
Peter and René would go camping in Eastpoint (Oostpunt) in Curacao. They had a tent, would bring rice, and eat lobsters and fish. They would take their parakeet, Isador (a small lora), that they raised on milk and rest on Oma's hair.
René begins his first business (from 1952-1958): he would go to beach, break off small pieces of coral, soak them in fresh water, spray them off, and bleach them in the sun until they were white. He’d then gather Brazilwood pieces and cut them in slices in order to make mounts for the coral pieces. He had huge orders, including Hugo Gerhart’s father who ordered 300. Penha (a well-known store in Curacao) gave him counter space to sell the corals directly to tourists.
Fred Fischer, an Austrian photographer, sees the Hakkenbergs doing pioneering diving and spearfishing, and fashions a housing for a camera so that it could take underwater photos. It was set up so the controls on the outside of the housing could access the camera, so he could take photos below the water. This was likely the first underwater photography in the Caribbean. René would carry the underwater lightbulbs, and assist Fred with the shots. In the pictures below, notice how René is without a tank. He would hold his breath and take oxygen from Hakkie's tank, instead.

1955

Hakkie writes and publishes a book, “Caribisch Steekspel”, about his diving adventures in Curacao and Bonaire. Fred Fischer does the photography, which includes underwater photos of Peter and Hakkie.
- The book recounts, among other stories, the true story of a shark chasing René up onto a rock. When the swell went down, the shark was stuck on top of the rock until flopping off.
René and Oma would go old bottle hunting underwater or above in the mangroves and in old plantation houses.

1958

Oma and Hakkie move to Tehran, Iran on a UN mission.
- Hakkie was head of an aviation UN mission to Iran – his was to show the locals how to set up an airport, and run an airline etc.
René chooses to complete high school in at Weert Boarding School in Holland, St. Joseph’s Jesuit Catholic (rather than staying in Curacao), while Peter chooses to stay in Curacao to complete his schooling.
- René recalls at school how strict the priests and nuns were, and how bad the food was. They let the students shower once a week, but there was never any hot water.
- Again, he tries for first in class -- but ties for first w/ Eddie Determinger.
- He studied French, English, Dutch, Spanish as well as German -- which he had to catch up in.
- His room was a Chambret, a small room in a big open building common in boarding schools.
- There was a strict curfew. One time, René snuck out to pick cherry trees, and was caught and suspended for 3-4 days. He stayed those days at Oma’s parents house and did not tell his parents about it.
- René recalls how another priest would give him money for toothpaste (ten gilders) – but he bought french fries with it instead.
René visits parents in Tehran.

1959

René visits Tehran a second time.
- People assume he (and other foreigners) are American, and he would go to the American club in Tehran.
- He remembers going hunting for boar, and visiting the Caspian Sea.
One night in Tehran, Eleanor Roosevelt visits with a delegation and is seated next to Peter. To his surprise, she engages him in conversation the whole dinner, and he leaves very impressed with her.
Hakkie (left in the picture below) worked with the Shah of Iran (right, in the picture below), and advised him on all things aviation.

1960

Oma and Hakkie move to Kathmandu, Nepal, for a second UN mission that will last 2-3 years.
- Hakkie works on radio beacons for the Kathmandu airport.
René graduates from high school and moves from Holland to Canada to attend McGill in Montreal, starting a 5 year civil engineering course.
René remembers being in awe of Montreal and became close friends with Jose Antonio Pastega (an Italian that he still writes longhand letters with). They share an apartment in Montreal for 4-5 years. René was also close friends with Helmut Reichert, and the three would hang out on weekends, go to the disco, etc. in Montreal.
During his first summer vacation, Rene works as a waiter in an upstate NY hotel, The Saranac Inn, until he is arrested for working there illegally. He is deported back to Canada.
René then works as a dishwasher at the golf course where Peter’s wife’s (Louise) father was a member. René would stay at Louise’s aunt’s house. Eventually, he was promoted to hamburger chef.
After that, René worked for the Canadian Pacific Railroad, working as a waiter. The route was from New Brunswick to Winnipeg.

1962-1965

In the summers between 1962 to 1964 René would take simple engineering jobs, such as drafting.
René has another business idea: he starts selling cowhides as rugs, which he imports from Argentina. (Jose was Italy’s Ambassador to Argentina). The rugs were sold in Montreal at Eaton’s.
René earns a Bachelor of Engineering degree, then takes a job at Caterpillar in Peoria, Illinois, where his brother Peter works. René works in a training program to make an efficient system for their loaders. He decides it isn't for him and decides to pursue a Master's degree.
While still in Peoria, René sends out applications. In addition to McGill, Rene is accepted at UC Berkeley but does not receive the letter of acceptance in time! Turns out, the letter was sent to Montreal at Louise’s aunt’s house. René thinks he would have gone to Berkeley if he’d gotten it in time.

1966-1967

René starts his Master's studies at McGill, and lives with his old roommate, Jose.
René uses the money from selling corals in Curacao and from his Canadian jobs to buy a Triumph Spitfire.
In coursework, René is number two to a Hungarian, Steven Gero, who was smarter than the professor.
René receives Master's degree in Engineering from McGill in 1966.
Instead of attending his graduation ceremony, René accompanies Jose as he returns to Italy. Jose puts his convertible MG on a containership, and they meet it in Rotterdam. From there, the two tour Europe in the MG, ending in Jose's hometown outside of Venice (see picture below).
When he returns, René takes a position at Montreal Engineering Co., designing large factory foundations.
René receives a letter from Larry Theilgard describing International Salt’s plans to design a solar salt plant in Bonaire and their need for a civil engineer. Larry mentions that the local director of MCB Bank (and family friend), Norman Chumaceiro, gave him René’s name as a candidate for the job.
René responds positively, and interviews for the position in Clarks Summit, PA.
- He is offered the job, but feels unsure if he wanted to leave Canada. One day, he sees a magazine, Look, in Montreal that happens to feature Bonaire – and sees it as a sign to go back.

1968-1971

René moves to Bonaire to be the engineer at the solar salt facility construction site.
René takes up his old hobbies: with friends (e.g. Percy Sweetnam and Bruce Bowker) he goes spearfishing all the time, especially for barracuda near Bopec (where there were schools of 200!) and would go to the East side, spearfish, cut up the fish and wait for sharks -- just for the thrill.
One day while spearfishing near Bopec, Rene sees broken masts and anchor lines disappearing into the depths. He returns with a scuba tank, goes deep, and sees a huge ship emerge in the depths. Rene had discovered the Windjammer. He goes back with Percy Sweetnam (the strongest diver he knew) to show him the find, and they keep the knowledge to themselves for the first several visits.
- He returns with Bruce and the two start retrieving bottles. They had to do a lot of digging at great depths (~180ft) under the sand for artifacts. René returns to the site hundreds of times over the years.
- Many years later, Michael Crichton (author of Jurassic Park) writes an entire chapter about Crichton’s life-threatening dive experience to the Windjammer.
Hakkie and Oma would often visit Bonaire from Curacao by boat (boat named “Bunch”) in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Rene becomes National Park Foundation (Stinapa) Treasurer of the Board. René serves until 1984.
In 1971, René flies to St. Vincent, in the Grenadines with Dick Harrison and rents a single hull 30ft sailboat (with inboard) to sail and snorkel. He notices that the seas are already overfished, and the corals are not abundant.
- When not caught in large storms travelling between islands, they slept on the boat, on the deck, under the stars. They brought food, and caught tuna, which they cooked on board.

1972

René becomes Salt Company General Manager.
He would spearfish Goliath grouper mostly on calm side. People would come to call these fish "René" because he was the one who could get them. He would then sell them because they were so big and share the proceeds with those who told him about where they were.
Bonaire's first VHS was a matter for the newspaper (picture below).

1973

René takes a three-month trip to Indonesia.
- The Indonesian government had approached Akzo because they were having problems producing salt.
- Akzo puts together a team of three people, with René as the "technical guy".
René’s job in Indonesia is to see where solar salt production was feasible (climate, weather, and access for ships) and make it more mechanized. The same area (Madura, off Java) where the Dutch had produced salt for herring trade turns out to be the same place he chooses for salt production.
- He lives in an office building, eating rice dishes three emails a day. He remembers how delicious the Indonesian food was.
- He visits Thousand Islands (north of Jakarta). An American who used to work for the Salt Company and partly owned the hotel gives René rights to use the kitchen. René would snorkel to get local lobsters and cook them himself. He witnessed amazing, abundant corals.
- René, with an interpreter, scouted another possible location on the island of Sulawesi. Armed military escort him because the local chiefs are not in harmony with Indonesian government. René takes a jeep to get the chief’s permission to scout further, but everyone wanted to come along. Before he knew it, there were a dozen people hanging onto the jeep (the hood, etc).
- He meets an American in a hotel bar who wants to start a dive business in Indonesia. The American makes a bet with the chief that if he can stay underwater longer than the chief's best diver, the American would get a permit to start dive business. The American went in with tank and beat the chief's best diver -- who didn’t have a tank.
René goes to Bali with French friends. They travel the island on motorbikes.
René goes to Bangkok and Pattaya, Thailand. He dives, but finds the water murky and few corals.
He also goes to New Caledonia for diving. He travelled with with Carl Rossler, and they were based out of a small, local hotel.
On his way back to Holland, René has to travel through Moscow. He has problems acquiring a visa at the Russian embassy in Indonesia, but is told that he’d be okay since he is only transferring planes. But when he arrives in Moscow, immigration asks for his visa. He explains the situation, but the officials demand a $1000 payment. Rene refuses. He is detained in the USSR overnight and deported to Germany the next day. That night, he is locked in a room with another detainee, and no bed.
René returns to Akzo in Holland and turns over a 100-page study on potential Indonesian salt production.
Filmmaker Cornell Wilde comes to Bonaire to film "Shark’s Treasure". The main actor is terrified of the ocean, and the director hires René as a stuntman for $100 a day. One day, René has to swim into Playa Chiquitu from the ocean, navigating the huge surf and sharp rocks, trailing a dinghy.
The director needed a shark for the shot, so they used a reef shark recently caught by a local fisherman. They keep the shark refrigerated at night in between shooting days, as it slowly decayed as the shooting days went by. On top of other stunt duties, Rene would hold the horrible-smelling shark corpse in the water, and push it along to make it seem like it was swimming.
In the picture below, we see Hans Hass (middle), the famous underwater photographer known from, among other things, from “Diving in the Red Sea”, Peter Hughes (left) and Rene prepare for a Windjammer dive. Hans came to the island seeking out Rene for the epic, but dangerous, deep dive.

1974

René becomes Salt Company Managing Director.
Throughout these years, Rene was involved with old bottle recovery in Bonaire’s harbor and Klein Bonaire. He’d hold the boat with one hand, mask in other, pulling dozens of bottles into the boat.
René travels back to Indonesia for 3-4 weeks, and discovers that few of his recommendations in the earlier report were followed up upon, and that little had changed.
Hakkie and Oma move to Florida after their house on Curacao got broken into. They enjoy the birds going shrimping in little boat.

1975-1976

René meets Jennifer Margaret Garcia-Tobar (now “Jennifer Margaret Terwilliger”) at Hotel Bonaire beach with Bruce Bowker.
Jennifer went back to Caracas, but they stay in touch.
In 1976, René visits Jennifer, her mom, Helen, and her two children, Alexander and Julia, in Caracas, eventually asking Helen for permission to marry Jennifer. Helen said yes immediately. So did Jennifer a bit later.
Rene and Jennifer marry in Florida, where Oma and Hakkie are living.

1977-1978

Tourism rentals were doing quite well, so Rene buys seafront land in Belnem, and constructs a house. It rents well, so he builds another.
René builds another house on the Belnem land. It also rents well, so he buys the land next door, and builds four more duplex units. He names it Bonaire Beach Bungalows.

1980

René and a very pregnant Jennifer travel to Washington D.C. where Christopher René Hakkenberg van Gaasbeek, René’s only child, is born on August 28.
René takes Chris, only three hours old, to watch US open (Tennis) on TV. René remembers holding Chris and feeling the amazement of human life.
On a typical day back in Bonaire, Rene would wake Alex and Julia in the morning and drop them off at school on his way to the Salt Company. Then he’d leave work at 1PM, pick them up on the way home for a late lunch, and then head back to Salt Company by 2PM.
Chris had a mind of his own. When his bottle was empty, he’d chuck it against the wall. He was a happy baby and laughed a lot.

1981

Chris would be set loose in garden and he’d be content for hours to hang out amid the trees.
René had a boat in marina. One day, baby Chris fell into water without floaters, and René dove in after him to save him.

1982

Dutch Prince Bernhardt visits Bonaire and asks René to take him snorkeling.
René had a fenced-in pool in the salt works with a salinity close to sea water. There, he’d stash lobsters he’d caught in the days before, placing rocks throughout so they could hide. Then, on his way to work he’d go to the sea near pink beach and harvest a bunch of sea urchins, using a 2x4 to break them up into bits to feed them to his penned lobsters. When he got to the pen, the lobsters would know he was coming and come out of rocks ready for food, sometimes even partially out of the water. Eventually someone found his stash and stole the lobsters. The secret was out.

René takes a trip to China.
- The Chinese government had approached Akzo for help in increasing the quantity and quality of salt production, and possibly a joint venture.
- The tech team included Rene, Jan Gielen, and an interpreter from University of Iowa.
- They started their trip with a stay in hotel in Beijing before heading on to DaQingChi, and stopping in Tainjin along the way. There, they were escorted by 12 soldiers due to the large crowds that came to see them. The soldiers claimed as many as 10,000 onlookers materialized in the span of an hour. The soldiers deemed it a dangerous situation, formed a circle around them, and they returned to the train.
- At DaQingChi, Rene slept in a small office with thin bamboo matting.
- He spent a few weeks there, eating well, especially the chicken soups. People would "ganbei" while drinking baijiu. After you drank, you’d place the glass upside down, and then servers would immediately refill your glass.
- After about two weeks, René returns to Beijing and is asked to give a talk on capitalism that he wasn’t expecting or prepared for. He gives the talk anyway. He gave an example of a bike manufacturer, explaining supply and demand, capital accumulation, stocks, etc. The talk was well-received and a lot of fun.
- The joint venture with China was never started and Akzo didn’t return.
René bought a house on north side of Bonaire Beach Bungalows, bringing the total to seven duplex units.

1983

The family would often go to Flamingo Hotel pool, where Chris would stay in the water for as long as he could.
René would put Chris in a basket on the back of his bike and speak only in Dutch with him on their rides along the coast.
The coral was thick in front of the house in Hato, that it looked a skilled snorkeler to navigate through to the deeper water. When Chris was learning to swim, René would put Chris on his back and snorkel through the twists and turns of the reef, until they reached the outside.
Buzz Aldrin comes to Bonaire to dive the Windjammer (René is the "Windjammer guy", so Buzz seeks him out). Rene takes him diving and he spends time at the house with Chris, Alex, Julie, and Jennifer (see picture below).

1984

The family moves to the United States. First, they live temporarily on Elk Mountain in PA where René teaches Chris to ski at 4. Later, they move into a house in Waverly, PA.
In addition to his duties at headquarters, René becomes general manager of solar salt operations at a salt plant in Salt Lake City, UT.

1988

René travels with Jan Gielan to the Turks and Caicos islands for two weeks to look for new locations for solar salt among the many uninhabited islands. In between the small islands, the water was quite shallow and full of coral and lobsters, with similar marine species as Bonaire, but with a higher abundance of everything.
- They travelled by helicopter from island to island, testing seepage, salt concentrations and wind, etc.
- Sometimes they’d lower the helicopter to the surface, René would sit on the landing gear, reach out, and take a cupful of water to do the salinity check.
- They stayed at a hotel in South Caicos, and would give other people in the hotel rides on their helicopter in return for the inconvenience of waking them up with the noise of their helicopter in the mornings.
- For lunch, they’d grab a few lobsters in the shallows, make a fire on the beach, and gorge.
- René had dinner with the Prime Minister, who was later implicated in drug smuggling.

1991

After living in Pennsylvania for 7 years, Rene retires from Akzo and prepares to return to Bonaire.

1992

René moves back to Bonaire and starts a solar salt consultancy.
He recalls filling buckets with shrimp that overflowed from the shrimp production facility in the south of Bonaire. On the last night of one stay in Bonaire before returning to the U.S., he stayed up with Oma and Chris stayed boiling and freezing the shrimp prior to their departure the next morning.
René, Oma, and Chris (and others) would fish regularly at the Plekkie (“the spot”, see picture below) in the salt works. Amid the salt ponds, there were inlets with fresh sea water, fostering a vibrant fish community. The three set up chairs, snacks, and drinks upon the dikes and would fish until dark. Later “Plekkie” would come to refer to the sunset viewing spot at Sabadeco S14.

1993

Rene founds the organization "Save the Lora" (Antillean parakeet) during a drought which kills many loras due to lack of food. They bring in old mangoes from Venezuela and distribute them in trees for the birds.
Rene joins "Tene Bonaire Limpi" (Keep Bonaire Clean) which had established cleaning efforts on the island (especially roadside litter), organizing volunteers to pick garbage and get trash trucks to pick up the bags.

1995

The idea of Jong Bonaire comes about from René's conversations with Allen Gross and Jane Townsend. They make a questionnaire for parents and kids; based on the responses, they start designing the foundation.
René becomes President of Recompression Chamber on Bonaire for divers with the bends, wounds and infections.
René, with Chris, starts building his house at Sabadeco Shores 14.
Chris and René would run together often. They compete in a race and each win first place in their respective age divisions. The picture below appears in the local newspaper.

1998

René, Allen Gross, and Jane Townsend found Jong Bonaire, eventually employing 25 people, providing opportunities for hundreds of kids, and enjoying many other successes over the years. He stayed as President until about 2018.
In Sun Valley, ID, René shares a chairlift with Clint Eastwood and later sees Buzz Aldrin in a hotel lobby. Buzz recognizes him immediately and says: “Hey, it’s the salt man, how’s the diving?”

1999

René remembers Chris standing in the sand at Pink Beach during Hurricane Lenny watching the huge waves washing Pink Beach’s sand away. René was convinced Pink Beach would come back but it never did.
"There used to be so much coral, you couldn’t even get out to sea, especially during low tide when it was exposed to air. They would have to break it up on their way out, and it would close up / grow over soon after. Hurricane Lenny put an end to that."

2000

René sells the Bonaire Beach Bungalows.

2005

René is appointed Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau (Benoemd tot Ridder in de Orde van Oranje-Nassau) for his years of service to Bonaire, especially in his role as a Founder and President of Jong Bonaire for 20 years.
- The honor is bestowed by the Governor of Bonaire.

2011

René goes on a Jong Bonaire trip to Statia (i.e. Sint Eustatius), and then to Saba for diving, where he is invited on lion fish hunts between different seamounts with dive instructors.
René becomes President of the Bonaire Jazz Festival. He organizes the festival and brings international jazz musicians to the island for three years.

2013

On July 31st, Oceansideboy (Rene) meets Oceangirl (Soledad Paz) meet for the first time in Aruba. It was magical.

2014

2015

René and Soledad travel together, and meet one another's families. René is welcomed with warm embraces into the Paz family, based in Argentina, and he feels grateful to become a part of their family.

2016

René gets plenty of time on his boat, Kompalaga, and in the waters of Bonaire tending his coral garden and swimming in huge schools of Masbango (see picture).

2017

On August 2nd, René and Soledad marry in a romantic and celestial ceremony at Harbor Village.
The Hakkenberg and Paz families become one.

René and Sol build their life together on Bonaire, at Sabadeco, under the famous green awnings (Rene, of course, hanging off the roof doing some repairs).

2018

René learns he has Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF).
He visits Houston several times with Sol, seeing doctors, and his son and daughter-in-law, Vida.

2019

2020

2021

René keeps up with his exercise routine, current events, and his social life -- all the while being cared for and supported by Sol, and being visited by family members as visits become possible after the pandemic.
He meets a community of others who have been diagnosed with IPF online, and together they support one another and try to learn more about the disease. Eventually, they co-write and publish a book on the topic, together.
Having met before his diagnosis, Sol and René had dreamt of traveling the world together, seeing their families and building memories. They realize that they have been dealt a bad hand, but feel closer as Sol devotes her time and energy to caring for René. René has peace in knowing that he has Sol's love and care, and that he will not have to manage his terminal illness alone.
Sol's sister, Miky, comes to Bonaire for the first time and the three celebrate Rene' and Sol's wedding anniversary (picture below). It is Rene's last time at a restaurant.
After covid travel restrictions clear, Chris and Vida visit from Flagstaff five times over nine months, but it's never enough.

2022

On April 18th, and after 8 years struggling with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, Rene passes in his sleep, surrounded by family.

In memory of a life well-lived

A brief chronology of a life well-lived

In memory of René Hakkenberg van Gaasbeek Sept. 28 1942 - April 18, 2022

In memory of René Hakkenberg van Gaasbeek
Sept. 28 1942 - April 18, 2022