It is with great regret that we have learned of the death of Adolphe Neetens on 7 February 2011. Adolphe was co-founder with Freddy Huber of the European Neuro-Ophthalmology Society and succeeded Freddy as Editor-in-Chief of Neuro-Ophthalmology. Professor Neetens was a distinguished ophthalmologist who was formerly Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology in the University of Antwerp, Belgium. Adolphe and Freddy were both enthusiastic neuro-ophthalmologists, who had the vision to establish a forum for European neuro-ophthalmologists to meet together, present new research, and educate young trainees in our specialty. Much to their surprise the first meeting held in Zurich in 1993 attracted a far larger number of participants than they expected, so ensuring the establishment of bi-annual meetings of EUNOS.
We are also thankful for their prescience in realising the need for a journal devoted to the speciality, and for their considerable industry in the early years. The first issue of Neuro-Ophthalmology appeared in September 1980 with Freddy Huber as Founding Editor. Adolphe Neetens took on the role of Managing Editor in April 1988 and became the second Editor-in-Chief in February 1994. He handed the task on to Professor Eberhart Zrenner in 2000. The reader of today will still find Adolphe Neetens’s first editorial an excellent summary of the aims of our Journal and Volume 16 No. 4, which appeared in 1996, is a Festschrift in honour of his 70th birthday. The issue contains a fitting tribute from the pen of Freddy Huber.
Adolphe was a delightful entertaining man without pretension, who was always friendly and encouraging, particularly to the younger trainees. We mourn his death and offer our condolences to his wife and family.
Christopher Kennard
President, European Neuro-Ophthalmology Society
Gordon Plant
Editor-in-Chief, Neuro-Ophthalmology