Douwe Nicolaas Visser

Douwe Nicolaas Visser was born in Heusden on 1 July 1915. A population register from the town records him as a son in the Visser household. He later studied medicine and eventually came to Aalten as a doctor.

Visser belonged to a generation of general practitioners whose work was still closely tied to their homes. His practice was based at Dijkstraat 2, a listed building originally constructed in 1860 as a Roman Catholic presbytery and later used in the twentieth century as a doctor’s residence and surgery.

His predecessor there was GP Evert Jan van Schaik, who had practised in Aalten for decades from 1912 onwards. As Van Schaik’s health deteriorated, Visser had already begun taking over some of his work. Van Schaik retired from practice in January 1946 and died the following year. Visser then continued the general practice.

At a time when GPs made many home visits and specialist hospital care was far less accessible than it is today, the local doctor played a central role in the everyday life of a village such as Aalten.

Visser continued working there at least well into the 1960s. This made him one of the GPs who experienced the transition from the traditional village practice of the first half of the twentieth century to the rapidly changing healthcare system of the post-war period.

During the Second World War, Visser provided medical assistance to people in hiding.

By the course of the 1960s, Visser’s time in Aalten was drawing to a close. After him, GP Frederik Hendrik de Bruijne moved into the doctor’s residence on Dijkstraat.

Douwe Nicolaas Visser died on 8 May 1980, aged 64. He was buried at Zeister Bosrust Cemetery in Zeist.