Cor Winkler Prins, the silent force L.W. Van den Hoek Ostende & S.K. Donovan Hoek Ostende, L.W. Van den & Donovan, S.K. Cor Winkler Prins, the silent force. Scripta Geologica Spe- cial Issue, 7: 1-11, 7 figs., 1 table, Leiden, December 2010. Lars W. Van den Hoek Ostende (Lars.vandenHoekOstende@ncbnaturalis. nl) and Stephen K. Donovan (Steve.Donovan@ncbnaturalis.nl), Department of Geology, NCB Naturalis, Postbus 9517, NL-2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands. Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................. 1 Son of a famous family ......................................................................................................................................... 1 The student years ..................................................................................................................................................... 2 Curator and science manager ........................................................................................................................... 3 A brachiopod life ...................................................................................................................................................... 5 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................................ 7 Principal scientific publications of Cor Winkler Prins ....................................................................... 7 Introduction Silent respect. It is the way the Cornelius Winkler Prins treated the world, and oſten the way that the world treated him. It is the silent man that is easily overseen, but, in our opinion, it is the modest scientist that should never be forgoen. Son of a famous family Cor was born in Haarlem on 18 th April, 1939, as the latest member of a family whose name was known in every household in The Netherlands. In those days, and actually long aſter that, the Winkler Prins Encyclopaedia was an important source of information, found on many a bookshelf in Dutch homes. The Encyclopae- dia was founded by Cor’s great grandfather, Anthony Winkler Prins (1817-1908) (Fig. 1), and ran through nine editions, the latest one, which appeared in 26 volumes between 1990- 1993, known as ‘The Great Winkler Prins’. In a day and age that internet has mostly taken over the role of source of knowledge from encyclopae- dias, it is nice to note that its popular successor, Wikipedia, Fig. 1. The memorial monument in honour of Anthony Winkler Prins, Cor’s great grandfather.