About Jan L Gerards
Jan Leonard Maria Hubert Gerards, Son of Jan (also known as Cheng) and his wife Ria, was born October 3, 1946 in Heerlen Holland. He had one sibling, his sister, Marjo. Growing up, Jan attended primary school in his hometown, graduating two years early, at 16yrs old.
After primary school, Jan traveled to Israel in 1965. His time in Israel stirred his passion for agriculture, a passion that he took to university. Jan received his Bachelor's and two Masters degrees in Holland, graduating from university in 1973, and eventually received his Ph.D. from Colorado State University in 1977. Jan also went back on to school later in life to receive his 3rd master's degree, an MBA, from Heriot Watts university. During his time in Holland Jan also served in the Dutch military, in 1967 and 1968. He was an expert marksman, a skill that was invaluable during his hunting expeditions in Africa. During that time Jan managed to enter the Guinness world book of records, for a period, with an entry for the largest warthog tusks.
Jan’s education in agriculture led to his career in water management. He worked in this career for the rest of his life. Jan’s career took him all over the world, eventually working in more than 20 countries and traveling to over 60 countries.
In 1973, Jan’s work took him to Pakistan where he met his wife, Catharine. They were married in 1974, and had their son Jan- Robin was born on May 28th, 1980. The family traveled with Jan and lived all over the world, eventually settling in Fort Collins Colorado.
Jan’s passion for making a positive impact, and skills in water management led him to work in developing countries throughout Africa, Asia, and Europe including Pakistan, Indonesia, Tanzania, India, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Romania. One of the highlights of his career was creating the plan that set the future water policy for the Indonesian government. Jan also launched a second company called Gaia Vision, which pioneered the use of Geographic Information Systems with satellite imagery to create a unified platform of topographical images of the earth. In even the early 1990’s Jan used 3D graphics to try and create something special. It took a trillion-dollar company 15yrs to accomplish what he was trying to do. Who and what was it, you ask? Google with the project called google Earth.
A serial entrepreneur, he also started a furniture company, worked with his sister and brother-in-law on a vitamin distribution company, attempted to create a cashew nut company, and most recently worked with his partner Liza on a chain of bakeries in the Philippines and Japan.
Jan was preceded in death by his parents, Cheng and Ria Gerards. He is survived by his wife, Catherine, son, Jan, sister Marjo, and partner Liza.
Jan had a deep love for his family, friends, and colleagues he met along the journey. He also had a wealth of hobbies. A passion for cooking, travel, photography, and philosophy. He was a true book worm, devouring libraries of knowledge. He loved to hunt, play Golf, and Badminton. Jan even sparred with the Olympic trainer of the Indonesian badminton team, whom he actually beat from time to time. He was a renaissance man in the truest sense of the word. Jan was a rebel as well, taking a cue from the famed philosopher Albert Camus that defined his world view of Absurdism.
One last piece of wisdom, an explanation of absurdism, the philosophy that drove Jan’s life . “Absurdism is a philosophical perspective that holds that the efforts of humanity to find meaning or rational explanation in the universe ultimately fail (and, hence, are absurd) because no such meaning exists, at least to human beings. “ In other words, as he said to his son, while we may never find an answer to the meaning of life, we should not give up its pursuit, because within that journey we bring our own meaning to it.”