Remembering Kursat
Posted: July 4, 2012 Filed under: Lifelong Learning Programme 24 Comments »
You may have heard that our director Kursat Levent Egriboz passed away last week, following a short illness.
This is an incredibly difficult time for the LLP team as we try and come to terms with the loss of our colleague and for so many of us a dear friend.
For those of you who were fortunate enough to meet Kursat, you will know that he was dedicated and passionate about the Lifelong Learning Programme. He will be greatly missed by so many in the UK and across Europe. He will be forever remembered by the LLP team for his kindness, positivity and sense of humour.
As a team we would like to thank you for all your support and sympathy and the kind messages of condolence we have received. Like you, our thoughts and condolences are also with his family and friends.
An official statement is available on the Ecorys’ website.
I am so sorry to hear this terrible news! All the best for all of you in the LLP team. My thoughts are with you.
Marzena Kubiak
IT IS HARD TO ACCEPT! THE LOSS OF KURSAT
KURSAT – A YOUNG, ALWAYS HAPPY, KIND AND HUMBLE GENTLE MAN
PLEASE ACCEPT MY SINCERE SYMPATHY.
SHORT LIFE! KURSAT, MAY YOUR SOUL REST IN PERFECT PEACE, SLEEP WELL.
WE WILL ALL MISS KURSAT.
I SINCERELY PRAY FOR STRENGTH FOR ALL OF YOU AND KURSAT’S FAMILY AT THIS TIME
THIS IS A BIG BLOW FOR YOU ALL SO I PRAY YOU CAN ALL COPE AT THIS VERY-VERY DIFFICULT TIME.
MY PRAYERS AND THOUGHTS ARE WITH YOU.
WE WILL ALL & I WILL MISS HIS SWEET SMILE – MY SON AS I USED TO CALL HIM- KURSAT REST IN PERFECT PEACE UNTI L RESURECTION DAY IF THERE IS ONE.
MAMA ‘TORO
So shocked to here the very sad news that Kursat has passed away. He was not only an inspiration for people to get involved in European Lifelong Learning programmes but also a nice human being. My deepest sympathies to Kursat’s family and friends and to his colleagues in Ecorys.
Kevin – EGSA Belfast
Accept my sympathy, it is a difficult time for all of you staff and those of us that never met him knew of Kursat’s work for humanity. We are all sad on hearing this news because your work gives UK based African women opportunity to meet other ageing people in Europe.
As in my langauge we say Allahwakbarr – God is great! Thank God Kursat’s short life
Peace be unto you all at this difficult time and do stay strong to carry on Kursat’s vision.
Our prayers are with you and his family.
I was deeply saddened to hear of Kursat’s passing. I have many memories of a dynamic individual with a flamboyant sense of style, but the memory that sticks is one from a LdV Showcase event in Cardiff many years ago. The networking event in the evening had finished and Kursat, I and some British Council colleagues were slightly worse for wear after drinking up plenty of the Welsh hospitality… The conversations got silly and maudling, but I remember Kursat with happiness. The sadness comes in having someone so dynamic, passionate and warm leave us so suddenly.
You will all feel his loss in the LLP team at Ecorys, both as a colleague and as a friend, but I hope that, in time, you will remember Kursat with happiness, not the sadness you will be feeling now.
Marguerite Hogg, Association of Colleges
Your pain is the breaking of the shell
that encloses your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must break,that its
heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
And could you keep your heart in wonder
at the daily miracles of your life, your pain
would not seem less wondrous than your joy.
And you would accept the seasons of your
heart, even as you have always accepted
the seasons that pass over your fields.
And you would watch with serenity
through the winters of your grief.
Much of your pain is self-chosen.
It is the bitter potion by which the
physician within you heals your sick self.
Therefore trust the physician, and drink
his remedy in silence and tranquillity.
For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided
by the tender hand of the Unseen,
And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips,
has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter
has moistened with His own sacred tears.
by Khalil Gibran
A Dutch singer put it in to the following words “I’m not really dead you know, it’s only a body I left behind, i’ll only be dead when you have forgotten me”. When I read all the warm memories Kursat leaves behind I’m sure he will find many hearts to rest and live further in another way.
My sympathy to all the people who were blessed with the being there of Kursat.
Carl Callewaert
director training programmes
Flemish National Agency
I am so sorry to hear the news, I agree, such a good and inspirational person will live on in many peoples hearts. Please accept my sincere condolances to all at ECORYs, his friends and family
Paul Baron
Bhagavat Educational Trust
The Dutch NA was shocked to hear the sad news about Kursat. We remember his enthusiasm about our joint challenges and his dedication to for example social inclusion. Kursat shared his views on this topic at our national LLP conference two years ago.
As a fellow director, I will miss his wit, sharp observations and constructive attitude during our meetings and conferences.
Please accept our condolances to his loved ones and the Ecorys community.
Joep Houterman
Netherlands National Agency of the European Lifelong Learning Programme
I remember Kursat as a warm, friendly and energetic person with a strong vision of an inclusive Europe. Our thoughts are with his family, loved ones , friends and colleagues at this sad time. His shining star will continue to light up their lives. xx Susan
This is such a loss, my thoughts are with you and with Kursats’ friends and family. I met Kursat on a number of occassions and fondly remember his wit, sense of humour and warmth. Such a loss.
Regards
Canice Hamill
I have never met Kursat or even talked on the phone with him. He was the son of my mother’s close friend. But several times she talked about Kursat being a kind, sincere and friendly person. I was really shocked when I heard his loss. The loss of such an inspirational person. Rest in peace Kursat. My family will be with you at the funeral ceremony and my prays will be with you.
So sad and shocked to hear this news. Kursat was a wonderful man, full of humour, and really dedicated to including disadvantaged people in the LLP. My deepest condolences to his family and friends at this very difficult time.
RIP Kursat.
Conrad Watkins
Cyrenians Cymru
We are shocked and saddened by this news. Kursat was a great character – passionate about Learning and Inclusion and so down to earth, friendly and supportive. Our thoughts are with his family, friends and colleagues.
Joe, Rosina and Nicola
Merseyside Expanding Horizons
Dear colleagues,
please accept our sincere condolences for the loss of your dear director, colleague and friend Kursat Levent Egriboz. We can only imagine what a sadness you and his family go through.
Not only was he a great person to cooperate with as he was always straightforward and honest, but also he had an amazing sense of humour. In short, Kursat was an exceptional friend and colleague who will be deeply missed by all who knew him.
Would you please pass on my sincere condolences to all of the LLP NA staff as well to all other colleagues and let them know that we here at Czech LLP NA collectively mourn Kursat’s loss.
Sincere condolences
Iva Tatarkova
Czech LLP NA
Dear Ecorys,
I was really shocked and saddened to hear the news about Kursat. He always seemed a very approachable person, and definitely not one with airs and graces and always ready to help. His influence was there to see in that this was reflected across everyone in his section. RIP
Neil Clarke
Brighton & Hove City Council
Comme tous les témoignages que j’ai pu lire ici, je suis choquée par le départ prématuré de Kursat. Son sourire d’ange du temps ou il vivait encore sera et restera à jamais dans mon coeur. Moi, qui vous avais visité fin mars avec ma grande soeur et son bébé. J’avais visité son bureau et avais eu la chance de rencontrer toute l’équipe. Le soir, nous avions eu la joie de partager un repas avec lui et ses parents (des personnes exceptionnelles, sages et gentilles), c’était la première fois que je le voyais et je l’ai trouvé exceptionnellement beau, gentil et surtout très amical. Nous avons pu lui dire au revoir et nous avons eu droit à un immense sourire. Je suis de tout coeur avec vous tous et espère que vous pourrez surmonter cet évènement douloureu. Le mieux serait, si vous en avez la force de pouvoir continué ce qu’il a commencé. Sincères condoléances à vous et surtout à sa famille. Je vous embrasse tous.
Marie, petite soeur de JACQUES Karine (France)
NTU and GHI teams are both shocked and saddened to hear of the loss of Kurzat. We remember him at information days as the friendliest and most approachable of people – you could ask him anything without feeling you might be asking a stupid question and, if he didn’t know the answer, he would dash straight off to find it and come back to you. Our sincerest sympathies to his family and friends and to you all at Ecorys – a great loss that must leave you all feeling shocked and battered. Our thoughts are with you. So very sad.
Jacqui Lewis and David Brown
Greenhat Interactive and Nottingham Trent University
We will always remember you , our prays with you.. RIP cousen ;(
Very, very sad to hear the news about my nearly birthday twin (born the day after me in 1972). Hard to believe that this warm, irrepressible personality is gone. I remember fondly swapping life stories with him over beers in Brussels, years ago, recovering from a day of turgid European Commission meetings – his openness, sparkle and immaculate dress sense. It was good to chat more recently in Birmingham and I always assumed we’d connect again. Sending thoughts and many good wishes to all who knew and loved him.
Gill Musk, IACD (ex-British Council)
It is really only now, one month after his sudden passing, that I can bring myself to post my comments on ‘remembering Kursat’. I first met him one evening over a decade ago in the Rum Bar in Brussels in the company of other colleagues attending a meeting with the EC about the Leonardo da Vinci Programme for which we had responsiblity in our various countries. It was probably one of Kursat’s first LdV meetings in Brussels and it was immediately clear to me that here was a person who was passionate about everything – the work, the colleagues, life in general – who would make a significant contribution to the ongoing development of LdV and, in doing so, become very popular with everyone he encountered.
And that is how it came to be.
Over the years he became a key figure in the world of vocational education and training in Europe and had been working in various fora in recent years to contribute to the development of the next round of future EC programmes to run from 2014 onwards.
Kursat was a swimmer and our first encounter at EC Presidency or informal meetings was in the hotel pool before breakfast on the first day! I remember him being one of the first to dive in the lake after a long day at an informal meeting near Munich a few years ago. He was also a skilled dancer and would ‘strut his stuff’ given half a chance should there be a dance floor nearby after dinner. His intelligence and personality, coupled with his immaculate dress sense and ‘signature’ waistcoats, ensured that he always stood out in a crowd and will be long remembered as a great colleague, true friend and a beautiful person.
I was shocked to be told of his passing and everyone to whom I told the sad news in various orgnisations in Ireland where he was known were very sad for his family, friends and colleagues. We are all the richer for having known him and the poorer for his loss.
I’ll finish with part of an old Irish blessing for Kursat, may he rest in peace.
“May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the rain fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.”
I am so shocked and saddened to hear that Kursat has passed away. And so young.
Please pass my deepest condolences to his family and friends and colleagues. He was a lovely man who led a good team.
I only met Kursat a few times through a great friend, Sarah, but I loved his warmth and his open-ness. I wish I’d had time to get to know him better.The times I met him , I remember with great affection.He enlivened me and his memory is enlivening
Alison
I was very suprised when I saw him at a Commission meeting in 2004. Education Programmes were very new for our country but he was already there! He helped us a lot during implementation of programmes and it was always comforting to see him in Turkey and also in Brussels. He was not only a colleague but also a friend to me and to our Leonardo team.
We will always remember him…