Hennipman and De strongEconomiststrong.pdfVIP

DE ECONOMIST 129, NR. 1, 1981 H E N N I P M A N A N D DE E C O N O M I S T BY J. ZIJLSTRA Professor P. Hennipman has been associated with De Economist for more than thirty-five years, first as secretary and later as chairman of the Board of Editors. In the words of Professor P.B. Kreukniet at his installation as chair- man, Professor Hennipman accomplished these tasks with a prodigious devotion and a scrupulousness which has become well-nigh proverbial (De Economist, 121, no. 2, 1973). In devoting this special number to their chair- man, the editors wish - and here again, with a slight variation, they quote Kreukniet - to pay a warm tribute to and express their appreciation for the thirty-five years during which he gave an important part of his energy in an exemplary m~nner to De Economist (ibidem). The attention paid to Hennipman the man and the economist at the time of the 25th anniversary of his appointment as a professor means that it is now far from easy to add anything new. As an economist he stands out mainly for his great knowledge of all aspects of economic science. It is no exaggeration to say that he has a nearly encyclopaedic knowledge, which has time and again proved remarkable in its profundity. To my mind, our chairman is one of the disappearing band of scholars of whom this can be said. The enormous expansion of the field of economics means that a really great generalist is unlikely to emerge again. It is certain that, had Hennipman not written primarily in Dutch, a language which is