In Memoriam Frans Feron
It is with great sadness that we learned of the sudden death of Prof. Dr. Frans J.M. Feron, since 2019 Emeritus Professor of Social Medicine, in particular Youth Health Care. He passed away on the morning of March 28 at the age of 69.
Frans J.M. Feron was born on August 3, 1953 in the South Limburg village of Ulestraten. In 1972 he obtained his final diploma Gymnasium-β at the then Henric van Veldeke College in Maastricht. He then studied medicine at the Catholic University of Nijmegen, where he obtained his medical degree in 1980. From 1980 he worked in youth health care for children and young people from the age of 4 (in the early years also for the very youngest from 0 to 4 years), combined with forensic medical tasks, at the GGD in Maastricht. In 1983 he was appointed Medical Confidential Advisor on Child Abuse for the province of Limburg and he held this position until 1996. From February 1987 to July 2006, in addition to his work as a passionate executive youth doctor, he was also head of the Youth Health Care department. His experience in the combination of care implementation and department management gave Frans the opportunity to intensify the collaboration with the Academic Hospital Maastricht (azM, now MUMC+), Maastricht University and Franciscusoord in the field of care, education and research. From 1994 to 1998 he participated in the South Limburg ADHD team – initiated by (em.) Prof. dr. dr. J.S.H. Vles – and from 1998 Frans was a team member of the transmural ADHD consultation hour on behalf of the Youth Health Care. When the transmural joint consultation hour was integrated in 2002 in the Outpatient Clinic for Learning Disabilities of the former azM, Frans continued this work in pediatric neurology.
In the field of education, he worked from 1982 as a guest lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine of Maastricht University. From 1996 onwards, his teaching activities were structurally embedded in the Medicine curriculum, with a special focus on Social Medicine, in particular Youth Health Care and Child Abuse.
Even before his own PhD he had an impressive list of publications. A bet led to the start of his own PhD trajectory and eventually his dissertation 'Studies on neurodevelopmental issues in children' with Prof. dr. J.S.H. Vles, Prof. dr. J. Jolles and dr. J.G.M. Hendriksen at Maastricht University, which he defended in 2007. In 2008 he was appointed as Professor by Special Appointment of Youth Health Care at the then newly established Department of Social Medicine at Maastricht University. In 2013, his endowed chair was converted into a full professorship with his appointment as Professor of Social Medicine – in particular Youth Health Care – and he became department chair of the Social Medicine department of the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences at Maastricht University. From June 2013 until his retirement in 2019, Frans was chairman of this department. He has revitalized the department by strengthening trust in each other and by constantly emphasizing the importance of social medicine in many ways. “We are not ordinary medicine, we are social medicine” was one of his famous statements.
Frans received a lot of recognition for his research. He launched the concept of 'Growing into deficit', which reflects the often lengthy process in which the interaction between predisposition and environment leads to disease, which implies a long period in which preventive signalling and intervention is possible. This is now basic subject matter for many students. Early detection has always kept his attention, which is reflected in the dissertations of his PhD students, which are often aimed at developing practical tools, for example, for preventing absenteeism and dropout at school. Frans received the prestigious Flora van Laar Prize in 2019 for his outstanding research in youth healthcare.
Students regularly nominated Frans as Clinician of the Year and he was very proud to have won this award on a number of occasions. He had a good relationship with his students. This became apparent recently, for example, when a truck drove up to his office and he was invited to take a ride through the Heuvelland himself; a gift from a student who graduated with him, whose father owned a transport company. It turned out that Frans as a toddler had quickly decided not to learn anything at kindergarten, which resulted in Frans as a toddler reporting every day before dawn to travel with his father in the truck to see the world and learn things his way. His knowledge of people and years of experience in various roles and organizations led him to become the independent confidential advisor for PhD students at the Faculty of Health, Medicine & Life Sciences and the MUMC+, a role he also fulfilled after his retirement.
He always remained remarkably modest about his own role. Frans was a generous giver, who liked to put others in the limelight. You never knocked on his door in vain and you always left his room with a smile and with a way out of your problem. His roaring laugh and (black) humor were characteristic, as was his ability to really listen to what the other had to say.
Frans was also a musician. He played the piano at a high level and has passed on his passion and talent for music to all three of his children, with whom he has shared many precious moments on and off stage. If he had had another hard day and work faced him with indescribable suffering, his wife could hear it in his piano playing, he once said.
Maastricht University is extremely grateful to Frans Feron for everything he has given us. Also thanks to him, there is a flourishing department of Social Medicine and there are many new insights into how youth health care can be improved. We wish his wife Josien, children, daughters-in-law and grandchildren a lot of strength with this great loss. Frans' task in this world was not yet finished. We must now continue together with everything he has taught us.
The colleagues of the Department of Social Medicine
The funeral took place in a private family circle. In memory of Frans Feron, room 0.031A will be opened at Duboisdomein 30 from 11 to 14 April from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.. A card can be left there or your condolences can be written in a book for the family.
