KLUYVER AS SEEN BY HIS PUPILS 



pleasant and acceptable occupations, befitting the gentleman he was. 

 Had he chosen to do so, he might have excelled in any one of a num- 

 ber of fields quite remote from microbiology. 



His self-respect made it impossible for him to set any standards save 

 the highest, the only challenge worthy of his endowments. There was 

 no point and no fun in doing something if it were not done as well as 

 possible. Once engaged in a task, he never backed out; his pride al- 

 lowed of no defeat. And in this manner he cultivated also in others a 

 strong sense of responsibility and loyalty. 



His keen and critical intellect, sustained by reasonableness and a 

 sense of proportion, made him the type of 'classical scientist' whom he 

 characterized in his Washington speech. But there was more. Perhaps 

 the gypsy vein, said to run in his family, expressed itself in the undeni- 

 ably adventurous and romantic traits of his character, and most of all 

 in his intuition and infinitely sensitive receptiveness to human emotion. 

 These elements, unified into a harmonious bipolarity, conferred upon 

 him an uncanny perceptivity through which he experienced reality 

 in all its complexities. In both directions his vision extended all the 

 way to the horizon, and the ominous comprehension of endless possi- 

 bilities could not but produce an attitude of wariness and uncertainty. 

 The need to make decisions was to him one of the crude necessities of 

 life, and a decision once made always remained tentative and subject 

 to an 'agonising reappraisal'. 



But living with insecurity did not depress him, nor did it make him 

 cynical. He had accepted it as inevitable, and learned to master 

 vulnerability without becoming immune to it, by adopting a charming 

 formality of manner that nonetheless made it easy to approach him. 

 Through his courage and strength of mind he could keep his balance 

 and act in practical life without having to distort the labyrinth of 

 doubts into a more reassuring though false pattern of 'truths'. 



He had no interest in seeking objective perfection - perhaps he was 

 simply bored by it - but rather strove towards finding the best possi- 

 ble solution for a given situation in which the pertinent factors, human 

 as well as others, had been taken into account. His own work, conclu- 

 sions, and decisions bore in his mind a predominantly conditional 

 and experimental character, particularly because they had been fram- 

 ed in a mood bordering on playfulness; to others they may have ap- 

 peared as the last word and unassailable truths. 



63 



