Jan Fokke Agema (12 September 1919 – 23 April 2011) was a Dutch Hydraulic Engineer and Professor at Delft University of Technology. He is notable for his design of the harbour entrance at Hoek van Holland and involvement in the construction of the Oosterscheldekering. The prof. dr.ir. J.F. Agemaprijs (English: The Professor ir. J.F. Agema Prize) is named for him, and has been awarded every five years since 2000.
Family, early life and education
Agema was born in Opmeer in 1919, the eldest of three brothers in a working class family. His father, Sibbele Agema, was born in Wirdum, and met his mother, Johanna Catharina Agema (née van Dolder), when he was billeted in her family's farmhouse in Gouwsluis, near Alphen aan den Rijn whilst he was mobilised with the Royal Netherlands Army during World War I.
In 1932, Agema attended the vocational school in Hoorn, choosing to study carpentry. At this school, he also studied technical drawing, statics, projective geometry, mathematics, and materials science, graduating in 1935.
Agema displayed exemplary academic performance at the school, and in 1935 the school board chairman Johan van der Burgt, who had an additional role as the head of the Hoorn district of Rijkswaterstaat, arranged for the then fifteen-year-old Agema to commence as a trainee draftsman at the Hoorn district service. During summer breaks, he was involved in Rijkswaterstaat's measurement and morphological studies in the Wadden Sea and the coastlines of the Wadden Islands.
In 1938, Agema was transferred as an assistant draftsman to Johan van Veen at the Rijkswaterstaat Lower Rivers study service in The Hague, living in a boarding house in Scheveningen. He spent the money that remained after paying rent on evening class lessons in mathematics, hydraulic engineering, and other subjects in preparation for the Rijkswaterstaat (English: Technical Official) exams.
Activities during World War II
In 1940, Agema was mobilised with the Netherlands Armed Forces and stationed in Schoonhoven with the (English: pontoon engineers). Following the German bombing of Rotterdam in May 1940, he moved to Grave, where his company were ambushed by German troops in the early morning of 10 May 1940.
By June of 1940, he had managed to resume his work at Rijkswaterstaat, avoiding Arbeitseinsatz as a result of the organisation convincing the Germans that all their employees were essential to prevent The Netherlands from flooding. In early 1941, he earned a diploma as (English: Zeeland Hydraulic Engineering Overseer), and in April 1941 he was transferred to Bergen op Zoom as a 3rd class overseer at the harbour works office, where he earned a PBNA Concrete Technician diploma.
In 1942, he was transferred back to Hoorn, but in April 1943, the Wehrmacht commander in the Netherlands announced that all members of the former Dutch army had to report to be taken back into captivity as prisoners of war. Agema was one of the thousands of ex-soldiers who ignored this order, going into hiding at a farm near his parents' house in Opmeer, where he was given shelter and food in exchange for doing odd jobs.
However, it was arranged that he would occasionally receive documents from Rijkswaterstaat by courier, so that he could continue his calculations. During this time, he managed to sit the Technical Official of Rijkswaterstaat exam whilst still in hiding. This resulted in his promotion to Technical Officer in permanent service in 1946.
Post-War period
In February 1947, he was transferred by Rijkswaterstaat to Roermond. On 1st November 1948, he was again transferred, this time to the service in Vlissingen under the supervision of ir. H.A. Ferguson. Following the North Sea flood of 1953 he was tasked with sealing a number of breaches in dikes and flood defences. He was able to make the first assessment of the damage and the initial restoration plan by helicopter, and as part of the recovery operations, he led the works to close breaches at Hansweert and Kruiningen.
Works for Rijkswaterstaat, the Delta Works and continuing academic education
On 1st July 1957, Agema was transferred to the Rijkswaterstaat office in The Hague as a hydraulic engineering senior official. In 1959, he decided to enrol as a working student of hydraulic engineering at Delft University of Technology, being accepted on the course due to the fact that the Rijkswaterstaat Technical Officer diploma was equivalent to a (English: Higher Technical School) diploma.