A LIFE STORY Man of many talents helped build a windmill

Jan Sefrijn Langen, community leader: b Apeldoorn, The Netherlands, September 10, 1931; m Cornelia Brandt, Palmerston North, March 13, 1954; 3d, 1s; d Levin, March 14, 2014, aged 82. of Foxton Beach, produced two working models from authentic Dutch windmill plans (based on models built in the 1800s). Slobbe and Langen went on to combine their talents in bringing the windmill to life.

In 2000, the foundation stone was laid before the replica of a traditional 17th century Dutch flourmill was opened in 2003.

Apart from the running gear, millstones and sailstocks, which were made and installed by Vaags Molenwerk from Aalten, in The Netherlands, the mill was built using New Zealand-grown timber, by mainly voluntary labour, under the direction of Slobbe.

The function of de Molen is to mill flour with millstones in the traditional manner.

Once it was completed Langen moved away gradually from his Wholesafe business and dedicated himself to voluntary work in the windmill. His wife Corrie joked she had become a windmill widow.

Retirement was a word that was not in Langen’s dictionary. He worked hard to co-ordinate fundraising and volunteering efforts surrounding the windmill.

In 2007 Langen was recognised with a ‘‘de Ridder of the Orde van Oranje-Nassau’’ award, an official Dutch honour.

He emigrated to New Zealand from Apeldoorn, in Holland in 1953 by himself, leaving his future wife, Corrie Brandt, behind.

Brandt’s family advised her against accompanying Langen to New Zealand. They told her he would write if he was serious about the relationship.

Langen obviously did write, for a year later the young Dutch couple married on March 13, 1954, in the Presbyterian Church, Palmerston North.

The day before Langen died in Levin the couple celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.

After giving up work as a railwayman in the 1950s, Langen pursued a career in farming, which took the growing family to many locations in the North Island.

He was a practical provider as he worked for farmers doing general farmwork, drain-laying, shearing in summer and clearing up trees and paddocks in winter.

He worked on farming properties in Longburn, Ashhurst and Otorohanga. Aged 30, he learned to shear and enthusiastically entered shearing competitions.

During his time in Ashhurst, while working as a fencing contractor and a wood and coal merchant, Langen noticed a lot of small waste wood on rural properties.

This got him experimenting with the manufacture of charcoal for barbecues. His inquiries worked, and he established a charcoal manufacturing business in Foxton.

When he and Corrie sold their charcoal business in Foxton, they took their family to Holland for a two-month holiday, proudly showing their children their Dutch heritage.

Later, also in Foxton in 1987, he started a safety equipment business by becoming an importer of personal protection equipment involving hard hats, safety boots and everything in between.

This business, known as Wholesafe Safety Equipment, is still owned and operated by family members in Foxton today. Langen continued to work many hours at the mill, physically carting bags of wheat, milling, marketing, running tours for visitors and administering until his general health began failing in 2009.

He was a man of many talents and a community man. Indeed the distinctive de Molen windmill stands in Foxton as a living monument to people like Cor Slobbe and John Langen.