Pieter Pieter was born on November 17, 1950, in Ouderkerk aan den IJssel. In 1951, the family moved to Millingen aan de Rijn, where his father found work at the Bodewes shipyard. Pieter’s brothers Henk (1954) and Jan (1955) were born there. In 1956, the family relocated again, this time to Beek near Nijmegen. There, his brothers Sjaak (1958) and Harry (1960) were born. Pieter spent his youth in Beek and attended school in Nijmegen. At the age of 21, Pieter was called up for military service and trained to become a sergeant at the Royal Military School. After completing his training, he was stationed at the Seedorf army base in Germany (which was decommissioned on May 8, 2006). In the nearby town of Zeven, he met Marlies — the love who convinced him to stay in Germany. Pieter took a job at Klöckner Werke AG in Bremen (now Arcelor Bremen). In 1973, Pieter and Marlies were married in Zeven, where they also built their first home together. Unfortunately, the diplomas Pieter had earned in the Netherlands held little value in Germany. This led the couple to return to the Netherlands, where Pieter found work at Daisy Systems in Wijchen. He worked there for ten years, initially as a Production Manager and later as a Quality Control Manager. When Daisy went bankrupt in 1988, Pieter found a new position as Quality Assurance Manager at Drukker International in Cuijk (which later became Element Six). Following several company restructurings, Pieter had to leave the company in 2004 at the age of 54. Fortunately, his age did not prevent him from quickly securing another job, this time at OKI Europe. Pieter retired on May 17, 2016. Since then, walking has become his passion. He completed the Nijmegen 4Days Marches for the third time and successfully walked the entire Pieterpad trail. |