Honorary members
Bert van der Lans
Honorary member
Bert van der Lans has been a committee member for many years. He provided our association with a jubilee book and recently donated a new standard. Of course, he is famous for having completed 68 editions of the Four Days Marches (as of 2015).
Francien van den Heuvel
Honorary member
Francien van den Heuvel was appointed as general member of the board of our Association in 1998. She took care of the member survey, the circular letter and the minutes of meeting of our board meetings. From 2003 until 2018 she held the position of treasurer.
When she started as treasurer, it was a hectic time and she faced a lot of challenges: in the year of our 50th anniversary, she was confronted with high expenses for our anniversary book. Francien succeeded to turn our Association into a financially healthy, stable and future-proof organization from an organization barely operating in black figures.
She experienced a lot of changes: from handwritten membership cards to a digital member's administration; from cash membership fee payments to automatic collection through the bank.
When she finished her term in 2018, she said goodbye as member of the board and as a reward for her huge commitment and efforts, she was appointed as member of honor.
Arjan Versteeg
Honorary member
Arjan entered the society as the 1,500th member. In 2003, Arjan became active as German translator and in 2004, he was elected board member.
Arjan had an important part in the transition from our bulletin from a black and white set of stencils to the present day full colour magazine GOUD! that appears worldwide in three languages. Arjan made himself strong fort he realisation of the meeting points during the Four Days Marches. He also was the driving force behind the renewal of our website that he modernised considerably. On top of all that, he lead the board into the new aera of SharePoint.
In short, Arjan has been a tremendous and influencial force in his 17 years of membership of the board.
Leonie Vink
Honorary member
On 23 April 2022, Leonie Vink resigned as president and board member. She had held the chairmanship of our association for 10 years at that time. Leonie Vink was only the fifth president of our association. Her presidency was characterised by her human approach and commitment, always keeping an eye on an excellent atmosphere and good cooperation both within the board and within the members' meetings. Leonie undertook a major modernisation drive within the board. Extensive note-taking was replaced by action point lists, the first online meetings were deployed even before Corona arrived and a multi-year policy plan was set up. Furthermore, a covenant with Stichting DE 4DAAGSE was established, speed dates for volunteers came up and we joined the Flag Parade. Under Leonie's leadership, our association grew from 2,500 to 3,800 members and we moved from Hyves to Facebook. Leonie was also the driving force behind the jubilee gift for the hundredth Four Days Marches: the cd with Four Days Marches songs, on which she herself also sang.
Henny Sackers
Honorary member
Henny Sackers has been a committee member from 1993 to 2012, first as secretary and later as chairman. Being born in Nijmegen, he completed the Four Days Marches 25 times. When an injury forced him to stop walking the Marches, he joined the committee of the Four Days Marches (Stichting DE 4DAAGSE). For that committee, he is in charge of legal affairs and annually produces the Four Days Marches regulations. In his daily life he is a professor of law at the Radboud University and a part time judge at the Courts of 's-Hertogenbosch and Arnhem.
Gerard Aarts
Member of merit
Gerard Aarts took care of our member administration from 2000 until 2018. Together with his wife Francien van den Heuvel he formed a perfect team for 18 years, that took of the member administration and financial matters. Gerard was very thoughtfull in his work as administrator. During his time our association gre to over 3,700 members.
In those years, systems to keep track of the administration become more and more advanced. He started of with hardcopy records, followed by Microsoft Excel and Acces and finally Davilex.
Francie de Leeuw
Honorary member
Francie de Leeuw was named Honorary Member in April 2019, when she resigned from the Board after 18 years of service. Within our Association, Francie was responsible for the lustrum awards, tribune tickets and birthday cards. She was the driving force behind our Meeting Points, where our walking members can make a pitstop during the Nijmegen Marches. She takes care of addresses, volunteers, tents, and provisioning. The Board is lucky that she will remain responsible for these tasks.
Gien Langen-van Kolck
Member of merit
Gien Langen-van Kolck from Lent has organized our annual reunion for many years. Every year, she was part of the reunion committee until the seperate reunion committee was disbanded. For that committee she was treasurer, prepared the program booklets for the day and received all guests. She was also one of the founding members of Stichting Vierdaagsemis, which hosts the annual Four Days Marches church service. In 2009 she was awarded the Silver Waal Bridge pin by the city of Nijmegen.
Vicky Henriksen-Delaney
Member of merit
Vicky became a member of our association in 1998 and was a member of the board from 2005 until 2017. She has always been an extremely enthousiastic member of the board. With all of her heart she owned projects and activities and always had numerous out-of-the-box and sponteneous ideas.
One of her initiatives was the creation of our own Hyves page, changed to a Facebook page later on. She gave our association a digital face and almost completely by herself created our new website. This new website really gave a boost to our "brand awareness".
Besides that she took care of the yearly article about Gold Medallists in the magazine of the Four Days Marches and Wandelsportmagazine. She also created our leaflet for recruiting new members.
Marcel Claassen
Member of merit
Mr Marcel Claassen has been active in our association for decades. He has been acting as archivist of both Stichting DE 4DAAGSE and our association for many years. In addition, as member of our association he has made great the Stichting Vierdaagsemis. Marcel has also taken on the organisation of an anniversary reunion on several occasions and has contributed to the realisation of the jubilee book of our association (12 years ago now). Marcel is an indispensable knowledge base for the board and members of the Association of Gold Cross Bearers Four Days Marches and has distinguished himself in various volunteer positions. We were once again able to call on him during the realisation of the Golden Cross Bearers' Trail. He was therefore appointed a member of merit of our association in July 2023.
Honorary members in memoriam
Honorary member Ben Hoge †
Ben Hoge was the chairman of our committee for years. Under his chairmanship our asssociation grew from 800 to 1500 members, started an internet site and became a member of the Dutch walking association KNBLO Wandelsportorganisatie Nederland. Ben completed his last Four Days Marches in 2010 and up to his retirement he was a notary in Nijmegen. His office used to be across the street from the grandstand during the final parade on the Via Gladiola. Ben Hoge has passed on 18 November 2012.
Honorary member Annie Berkhout †
In 2002 Annie Berkhout completed the Four Days Marches for the 66th time. This achievement turned her into a record holder. She participated for the first time in 1931.
Honorary member Frans Raymakers †
Frans Raymakers stepped down from the board in 1996, after 32 years of service. He completed the Four Days Marches 55 times.
Honorary member Tony van Dongen †
During 20 years Tony van Dongen was march leader of the Four Days Marches. He was the 5th march leader in the history of the Four Days Marches.
Honorary member Paul van Kessel †
Paul van Kessel participated in the Four Days Marches 46 times. He joined the board of our association in 1970 and was secretary for 22 years.
Honorary member Mies Klaver-Budding †
In 1985 Mies Klaver-Budding reached a milestone in the history of the Four Days Marches. She was the first person to complete the Marches for the 50th time.
Honorary member Siem Schipperheijn †
Siem Schipperheijn walked 44 times and was a board member as from the founding of our association.
Honorary member Gerrie Houkes †
For many years Gerrie Houkes was the only female on the board. She completed the Four Days Marches 40 times.
Honorary member Dirk Brandwijk †
Dirk Brandwijk was a retired police inspector and participated in the Four Days Marches over 40 times.
Honorary member Piet van der Kaay †
In 1964 Piet van der Kaay was the first walker to complete the Four Days Marches for the 40th time.
Honorary member mr. A.C.L. Dinkhuijsen †
Mr. Dinkhuijsen, also known as ‘Opa (i.e. granddad) Dinkhuijsen’ was very active for our association, even though he was not a member of the board. In 1954 he was the first, together with fellow honorary member Piet van der Kaay, to complete the Four Days for the 30th time.
Honorary member Jaap Stuij †
Jaap Stuij joined the board in 1982 and was a treasurer for 7 years.
Honorary member mr. A. van der Goes †
In 1926 mr. Van der Goes, first lieutenant, was the first Gold Medallist.
Honorary chairman mr. W.W. Feith †
Mr. Feith was our chairman as from the foundation of our association. He presided from 1951 to 1973.