Rand Aid resident turns 90

Inyoni Creek’s Harry Voerman celebrated nine decades of life on July 11.

The resident of the Rand Aid Association retirement village’s sunny apartment is filled with his paintings, which can be found on display across the world.

Born in Schiedam, Holland, Harry was convinced to follow a practical career and qualified as a mechanical engineer despite loving art from a young age.

He attended a technical school for two years and then continued his studies at the Academy of Art and Technical Science in Rotterdam from 1946 to 1949.

In 1959, he, wife Roely and their three children moved to South Africa and Harry continued his engineering career, holding a number of high-level positions.

Their fourth child was born in South Africa.

In 1969, at the age of 42, he could no longer suppress his artistic side and tackled his first serious painting – a vibrant still life.

Harry loves South Africa and said it was a photo from his brother-in-law, who was already living in South Africa, of a Jacaranda-filled Pretoria, that prompted the family’s move from Holland.

This was against the backdrop of the acute housing shortage in the Netherlands following World War II after the Germans destroyed over 95 000 homes.

In 1972, Harry partly shrugged off his old career to help his wife run an art, framing and gift centre which was initially based in Dunvegan.

Today it is situated in Van Riebeeck Ave, Edenvale, next to the windmill. Roely died in 1977.

Harry and later son Rob continued to run the business until about a decade ago when it was sold.

In December, Harry; a grandfather of eight will have been an Inyoni Creek resident for eight years.

“I am very happy here,” he said, praising the professionalism with which the village is run.