Dutch American Heritage Foundation

Ben Apon Dutch American Heritage Award

2004 Recipient

Ben Apon

Industrialist

Ben Apon was born in 1937 on the island of Java in the former Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). Sharing the same birthday as Prince Bernhard, who married Princess Juliana of the Netherlands during the year of Ben’s birth, Ben was named Bernhard in honor of the prince. Ben attended the Dutch primary and secondary schools and went to the Netherlands in 1955 to continue his education in chemical engineering at a technical college (HTS).

He fulfilled his military duty as an instructor at the NBCD-School (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Warfare and Damage Control) of the Royal Dutch Navy and in 1962 began to work and study at the Eindhoven University of Technology. Ben worked under the direction of Prof. Dr. Ir. A.I.M. Keulemans, a pioneer in the field of chromatography. Ben was also fortunate to work with professors A.J.P. Martin (Nobel Prize Laureate for chromatography) and M. Golay, the “father” of capillary gas chromatography.

In 1967 Ben received a study assignment at the laboratory of Dr. Bob Pescok in the UCLA Department of Chemistry. In 1970 he returned to Southern California with his wife and young son as permanent United States residents. After a career at Beckman Scientific Instruments, the USC School of Medicine, and Aerospace Laboratories, he started his own company, Chromapon Scientific, Inc. in 1979. Ben continues to manage the company today.

Ben served on the board of the Dutch Club Ahoy and the Dutch Club Wapenbroeders, of which he is a founding member. He and his wife are members of the Netherlands American Society.