wfn.org | WACC - In memoriam Wim Koole (1929-2009)

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Wim Koole, one of the earliest Honorary Life Members of WACC, died on
Easter Sunday, April 12. Wim was managing director of IKON, chairman
of the supervisory board for video information, vice-president of the
Dutch Film Fund, formal and informal advisor and initiator of many
WACC-related activities. In 1989 Wim received the highest possible
award for Dutch broadcast journalism for his work, the Nipkowschijf.

> --------------------

Wim Koole, who died on Easter Sunday, 12 April, was one of the
earliest Honorary Life Members of the World Association for Christian
Communication (WACC). In the course of a long life dedicated to his
belief in Christian principles of communication, Wim was a pioneer in
many aspects of audiovisual work, loyally serving his own company,
IKON, and WACCâ??s European Regional Association.

Daan Buddingh, a former staff member of the Dutch public radio and
television broadcaster NCRV, comments that â??Wim was an excellent
tutor and teacher for many of us who were or are active in (religious)
broadcasting. He retired in 1989 from IKON, but after that he
continued to pursue many activities and TV always remained his
passion.â??

Wim Koole was managing director of IKON (1963-89), chairman of the
supervisory board for video information, vice-president of the Dutch
Film Fund, formal and informal advisor and initiator of many
WACC-related activities. He offered thoughtful and inspirational
support to many directors and producers. He was the founder and
long-time editor of The Co-Production Connection, a bulletin linking
church-related and secular producers of television programming.

Wim transformed the religious broadcasting company IKON from a
comparatively small player in the Dutch TV sector into a huge source
of innovative television. He was a master of all kinds of religious
broadcasting, among others youth drama, drama for adults, and
features. In the 1970s he was one of the first who dared to experiment
with emotional television.

Another colleague, Renato Maiocchi of the Federation of Protestant
Churches in Italy, comments that â??For us Wim was the first and
foremost of many brothers and sisters around the world that have
helped our minority churches to operate and grow up in communication.
When we say that we have lost a real brother, that is not a pious
sentence for his funeral but a cry from our hearts.â??

Another tribute from Danish colleague Niels Thure Krarup recalls
Wimâ??s open and positive interest in all human beings. â??He  had an
outstanding capacity to meet each of us generously as a friend and
with a freshness which was contagious ­ part of that which the
secular world calls by a word stolen from the most essential elements
of Christian vocabulary: charisma.â??

Piet Halma, former President of WACC Europe, recalls that in the
1980s the death of five IKON colleagues shot during the Civil war in
El Salvador while filming had a big impact on Wim and his colleagues.
â??Wim asked himself the question: Can television offer any comfort?
It became his thesis in which he connected theology, pastoral care and
broadcasting. He firmly believed that television can create an
intimacy that heals and gives comfort.â??

In 1989 Wim received the highest possible award for Dutch broadcast
journalism for his work, the Nipkowschijf. Communicators in Europe and
elsewhere will mourn the loss of a gentle man who, among all his
outstanding professional and human qualities, always chose to meet
people with a smile that, in itself, was a heartfelt embrace.

By Philip Lee, Deputy Director of Program, WACC