As a gesture of gratitude for his enormous services to the city of Arnhem and the cemetery in particular, one of the paths at Moscowa (Waterbergseweg, Arnhem and part of 'the Facultatieve Group') has been named after Mr. Willem van den Beld, who passed away in 2008. The path ‘W. van den Beldpad’ was officially opened by the Mayor of Arnhem, Pauline Krikke and Mrs van den Beld, daughter of Willem van den Beld. The path ‘W. van den Beldpad’ - a long and winding path in the ‘De Vlinder’ area which also leads along to the Van den Beld family grave - will continue to remind future generations of the unprecedented services provided by Mr Van den Beld to the city of Arnhem and to Moscowa in particular.
Impressive career
Prior to the festive opening, both the Mayor and Henry Keizer, President of 'the Facultatieve Group' (of which Moscowa forms a part), provided a detailed account of the long and impressive career of Mr Van den Beld. Having started as a young worker at the Municipality of Arnhem, he worked his way up to become Director of the Cemetery. “An extraordinary person with an even more extraordinary life, who deserves to be honoured in this way.”
Ahead of his time
Moscowa played an important role in the impressive career of Willem van den Beld - and he proved to be far ahead of his time. In a period when cremation was still far from being commonly accepted, he was making a case for the installation of a crematorium at the cemetery. And with success. He managed to convince everybody, after which he became fully committed to the construction. Moscowa crematorium ultimately opened in 1974.
Mark of honour
Despite all his work and activities, he still managed to free up time for other activities to promote the interests of Arnhem and its population. For instance, he was closely involved in the formation of various Arnhem parks, including Sonsbeek. After the devastation of the war, he was committed to restoring Arnhem as a Green City. In 1980, Her Majesty the Queen made him Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau. Upon his retirement in 1981, Mr Van den Beld was awarded the Silver Medal of Honour after completing a service record of 50 years.
In the picture: the Van den Beld family with Mayor Pauline Krikke (l), Mrs Els van den Beld (3rd from the left) and Henry Keizer (5th from the left).
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