Jan Klaas TenBruggencate

MADISON--Jan Klaas TenBruggencate, age 89, passed away on Sunday, April 17, 2011. He was born in the Netherlands, where he was a fine track athlete and skater. He completed the famed long-distance ice skating race, Elfstedentocht. In World War II, he fought in the Dutch resistance and later as a member of the Dutch National Batallion.

In the post-war era, he worked in tropical agriculture in Indonesia before bringing his family from Europe to Canada and then to the island of Molokai in Hawaii. There, as an agronomist for Libby McNeill & Libby, he gained renown as a pineapple researcher.

In his later years, while living in Florida and Wisconsin, he consulted with pineapple-growing entities in Colombia, Swaziland, South Africa, and other parts of the world. After his retirement, he wrote Hawaii's Pineapple Century, the history of the Hawaiian pineapple industry.

A man of diverse interests, Jan was an artist, a linguist, a prolific writer, a lover of books on the South Pacific, an engaging storyteller and a passionate admirer of Hawaiian music. He had a robust personality. He delighted in his family. He was also informally adopted as a surrogate dad by many of his children's friends.

He is survived by his wife, Joan H. TenBruggencate; children, Jan W.P. (Carolyn Larson) TenBruggencate, M. Alison (Anthony D'Alessandro) TenBruggencate and W. Peter (Diana Dover) TenBruggencate; grand-daughters, Janna and Alena TenBruggencate; grandson, Darin TenBruggencate; cousin, Antje Blankestijn Bosman; nephew,Albert C.W. ten Bruggencate; and nieces, Maria P. de Wolf, Anne C. Sadilek and Ellen Frima.

A memorial service will be held at CRESS FUNERAL HOME, 3610 Speedway Road, Madison, on Saturday, April 23, 2011 at 11:00 a.m. A visitation will be held at the funeral home on Saturday from 9:30 a.m. until time of service. Interment will follow at Forest Hill Cemetery.