1/2/45 – 11/3/09

Former Hawker correspondent for the Flinders News, Dick Speekman, was born in the Netherlands during the ‘starvation winter’ of World War II, during which there there was no power, gas or petrol, and people had to ear rats and tulip bulbs.

As a result Diederick was neither as tall nor as robust as the post-war brothers and sisters that followed, and his teeth were so bad they kept the family in poverty for several more years!

But from a young age he had an adventurous spirit, and not long after receiving his first bicycle at age 10, rode 42km from Amsterdam to Utrecht to visit his grandmother.

Still in his teens he moved to the UK then immigrated to Australia in 1962 before he was 18.

He married a Dutch immigrant with whom he had two daughters, Paula and Yvonne, but his wife was not happy in Australia so the family returned to the Netherlands in 1974.

Unfortunately Dick no longer called the Netherlands home, and after a few unhappy years chose to return to his adopted country in 1979.

After several years living in Melbourne and working in radio, he moved to Adelaide in 1994 and started a business, Packaging SA. Whether it was the stress of the new business or coincidence, heart problems soon followed, and Mr Speekman eventually sold the business and took up translating work.

After travelling widely through the State to find somewhere quiet to retire, Mr Speekman settled on Hawker, where he immediately felt at home, and moved there in 2004.

He became the Flinders News Hawker correspondent later that same year, while continuing his translation work. He was also chairman of the Hawker Sports and Social Club, president of the Hawker Camera Club and joined the Hawker Community Development Board.

His final two years in Hawker saw him give up those activities as cancer advanced, and he died peacefully at Hawker Hospital on March 11, 2009.

He was buried at Hawker Cemetery by friend Reverend John Dihm.

After all the adventures he had found a home in Hawker, and wants Determined to Stay inscribed on his gravestone.

– Tarla Kramer