The artist Paul Simon wrote, “The mother and child reunion, is only a motion away.”
     As we get older that meaning extends to include friends who once were front and center in our everyday life, but somehow have melted away in the swirl of creeping years and geography.
     Another truism you may have heard: “When you are old and it's cold and nobody cares much if you live or die, the one consolation is a bit of money that may get you by.”
     So with a touch of pleasure tinged with sadness, we celebrate when somebody works their way through an airline career and manages to retire in one piece—not as the result of downsizing or ill-health, but with a parachute package and the ability to still enjoy a couple of shooters.
     That brings us to Jan Meurer.
     There has never been an airline guy we have liked better than Jan Meurer.
     Although today he has moved into service as Chairman of IHAB (International Hospitality Advisory Board) Hoge Hotelschool in Maastricht, Jan can still be seen at various air cargo functions with good friends like United Cargo President Jan Krems and Jacques Heerman, MD of Netherlands-based GSSA IAS Services.
     As long as we've known him in the business, he operated faithfully and with great determination and élan through a series of assignments at KLM.
     Although his KLM days are long gone and he is close to home in the Netherlands surrounded by friends and family, we recall some of the truly thankless jobs Jan accomplished during a stellar airline career.
     Jan began with Nedlloyd, moved onto Martinair, and after that to Pandair before joining KLM.
     You could say that for almost all his life Jan has been part of the team that held up the pillars of Dutch transportation heritage.
     The Dutch have always been great traders.
     In Amsterdam you can stand below Rembrandt's massive Night Watch painting, which anchors an entire floor of the Rijks Museum.
     Look into the expressions and body language of Dutch traders 350 years ago when the Netherlands ruled world commerce.
     Then go outside and take a walk along the Keisergracht.
     The same people appear as familiar faces in different clothes.
     Today, Nedlloyd to Maersk, Martinair to KLM with Maersk, Pandair into DHL and of course, most recently, KLM into Air France have all benefited from the steady, sure hand of Jan Meurer.
     Jan has always been involved with change, personally and professionally.
     New companies and challenges, new places to live and bring up his boys with his wife Annatine have resulted in an expansion of the character of the man, with knowledge of new languages and cultures and the global village. Professionally, change has been driven by business imperatives like growth, mergers, or reality.
     I guess Jan Meurer can best be described as a facilitator of change. He is a person who recognizes the human dimension of change and one who will work with people to understand, accept, and implement the inevitable.
     But what elevates this guy above the din has always lived inside of the man himself.
     Jan Meurer is tall, maybe 6-foot-five, so when you meet him he is bigger than you are.
     He is also very down to earth and warm hearted, often speaking in what sounds like a hoarse whisper.
     Jan gets lots of ideas and shares them all around.
     Something else is his downright refusal to think any task—no matter what the challenge—cannot be realized.
     When he was running the air cargo operation here in America (and later handling all of the U.S. for KLM) we described him as “Wild Thing” for his ability to enter a room full of people and make everybody think his visit was a personal, one-on-one encounter.
     But if you ask him, Jan Meurer will say the ultimate highlight of his career was being intimately involved in the KLM/Northwest relationship.
     Much has been written about the success of this pioneering aviation partnership.
     By any measure, KLM/NWA has certainly stood the test of time, serving as a model for others. “KLM/Northwest was built by people, visionaries who became my mentors and who continuously challenged me to adapt and grow with the opportunities that were created.
     “On the flip side, however, if there were lows in my career, the people impact of the KLM/Northwest relationship was the most difficult.
     “My last assignment in the U.S. meant handing over responsibility for the North American market to Northwest, strategically necessary but eminently painful.
     “I was the agent of change that had a high cost for wonderful, loyal people of both companies, either in the U.S. or in Europe where the process was reversed.
     “I'm sure that the strategy was successful but it was not without sacrifice.”
     We recall those days quite clearly.
     Jan Meurer, a giving and passionate human being by nature, was handed an unnatural and awful task to terminate legions of people.
     During that time we would see him attending retirement parties at places such as Russo's in Howard Beach near JFK International in New York, in the tough Italian neighborhood.
     Often we would kid with Jan, wondering when one of those “retirement parties” might net the big guy his own pair of cement shoes.
     Jan would always wince, not because of any threat or fear, but because he was genuinely bearing the pain and disappointment of others while attempting to reach out to them.
     “People have been pretty important to me.
     “I have been privileged to work with Martin Schröder, Ad Scheepbouwer, Jacques Ancher, Pieter Bouw, Mike Levine, and Leo van Wijk, all top management.
     “But at the same time, I have learned much and benefited from my friendships and association with secretaries, warehousemen, truck drivers, longshoremen, in-flight crews and my peers.
      “In this world it is all about what we can achieve together.
      “I am happiest when surrounded by people who are believers, implementers, and service deliverers—the core of any success, including my own.”
      At the end of his career as boss of the KLM cabin attendants, Jan's work was apparently quite a bit less strenuous, but as always Jan Meurer was up to the job and aced the assignment easily.
      Faithful, smart, effective, a real human being, down to earth and decent—those are just a few words to describe this guy.
      Now, in my 40th year on this beat covering air cargo, if you asked me why I love this business, the name I think of right away is Jan Meurer.

Geoffrey