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 WACC’s European Regional Association. Daan Buddingh, a former staff member of the Dutch public radio and television broadcaster NCRV, comments that ‘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.’

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 ‘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.’

Another tribute from Danish colleague Niels Thure Krarup recalls Wim’s open and positive interest in all human beings. ‘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.’

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. ‘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.’

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.

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