I visited the Gymnasium in The Hague and passed my final examination (in the sciences section) in 1943.
My father was a schoolteacher and my mother came from a teacher's family.
At this time, my work on the SPS power supplies had just come to an end; I joined a study group on the pp project and an experimental team studying cooling in a small ring (ICE).
Nevertheless, if I have at times been able to make original contributions in the accelerator field, I cannot help feeling that to a certain extent my slightly amateur approach in physics, combined with much practical experience, was an asset.