K. H. E. de (Karel Hendrik Eduard) Jong

Born in Biebrich on February 9, 1872, and later active in the Netherlands, he studied classical languages at Leiden and earned his doctorate there in 1900. He went on to teach privately and was admitted in 1910 as a lecturer at Leiden, where he remained connected to the university for decades.

His scholarly work centered on the ancient world, especially mystery religions, Stoicism, and Neoplatonism. One of his best-known works, Das antike Mysterienwesen, argued that some experiences reported in ancient mystery cults could be understood in ways that later thinkers might call psychical or parapsychological.

That unusual mix of classical scholarship and openness to psychical research set him apart. Later in life he also held a Leiden lectureship in parapsychology, and he continued teaching into 1960, the year he died in Zeist on December 27.