Although he had been living in Belgium for a long time, he was still a Rotterdammer at heart.
Saskia Lust
Tax Advisor - Advocate Pieter Dedert
Rotterdam-based self-made entrepreneur Pieter Dedert amassed a fortune selling ice cream. When he passed away at the age of 99, he left his entire estate to four charities. The Erasmus University Rotterdam Fund received more than €3 million. In accordance with his wishes, Dedert's legacy will be spent on cancer research.
The life of Pieter Dedert (1920-2019) reads like a boy's adventure story. It is the ''from paperboy to millionaire'' story, in the variant of the simple baker who grew into an ice cream magnate. The story of the working-class boy from Rotterdam South who lost his father at an early age, had to run the family bakery with his brother, and discovered that you could earn much more with ice lollies. The story of a gentle but persistent man who worked day and night. A man with a big heart, as his will proved once again.
Self-made
LL.M. Saskia Lust still speaks warmly and respectfully about Pieter Dedert. As a tax advisor, she had been looking after his affairs since the mid-1990s and was responsible for his estate. Lust: 'Mr. Dedert was a creative, inventive man. He was also stubborn, a real go-getter. If he wanted something, it had to happen. But never at the expense of others. He really built it all himself.'
Pieter Dedert's ''ice lolly story'' begins with a study trip to the United States. He observes Americans enjoying double lollies, ice lollies with two sticks. Dedert imported the idea to the Netherlands and manufactured his first ice lollies in the freezer compartment of the fridge in his parents' house. On that first day, 32 ice lollies were sold; eight years later, around 80 million, as Dedert reported in De Telegraaf in 1967. It is striking that he also designed and built the ice cream machines himself. ‘Actually, I thought he was more of an engineer type,’ says Saskia Lust. "When I looked around his study after his death, I didn't know what I was seeing. Extremely detailed drawings of machines, a cupboard with drawers containing all kinds of mechanical parts, information about chemical processes, boxes and Meccano constructions... He had thought out the entire process himself, down to the last detail! I think he could certainly have studied at a technical university. But fate decided otherwise. ''
A fortune to charities
Dedert IJs is now also making a name for itself internationally. Production has outgrown the Rotterdam bakery, and Pieter Dedert is building an ice cream factory in Roermond together with his younger brother Marinus. He moves to Schilde, near Antwerp, with his wife Adrie. Lust: "When I became his business manager, it was already clear that his capital would be donated to charity. Mr Dedert was now a widower and had no children. He was very decisive in his choices and I put them into practice for him. And although he had been living in Belgium for a long time, he was still a Rotterdammer at heart. So I set up two foundations, one in Belgium and one in the Netherlands, to which he donated during his lifetime."
''I think it's wonderful that he has done so much good for other people.''
Saskia Lust
Tax Advisor - Advocate Pieter Dedert
Pieter Dedert's legacy reflects his life. Saskia Lust: "Together with Mr Willem Kraal, who had been his accountant and confidant for many decades, he chose four beneficiaries: three in Rotterdam and one in Belgium. These were the Eye Hospital, where he had once undergone surgery, the Erasmus University Rotterdam Fund, the Daniël den Hoed Fund and the Centre for Oncological Research at the University of Antwerp." Of the four charities, the Erasmus University Rotterdam Fund received the largest amount, over 3 million euros. The estate has been placed in a named fund, with the returns being spent on scientific research into cancer, the disease that claimed Dedert's wife's life in 1994. In this way, the estate remains intact and the Pieter Dedert Fund can support cancer research at Erasmus University Rotterdam for eternity.
Living on
Saskia Lust reflects on the final phase of Pieter Dedert's life: ''I visited him in the garden of his villa and he said: ''We've done well for ourselves!'' I think it's wonderful that he has done so much good for other people and that he is getting the recognition he deserves, partly through the Pieter Dedert Fund. In this way, he lives on.''