Dirk Peter "Dick" Blok (7 January 1925 – 6 February 2019)[1] was a Dutch scholar of onomastics. He was director of the Meertens Institute between 1965 and 1986. He succeeded founding director Piet Meertens.[2] In 1979, during Blok's rule as director, the Institute was named after Meertens.[3] Blok fictionally featured in the book cycle Het Bureau [nl] by J. J. Voskuil, which was based on figures at the Meertens Institute, where Voskuil worked as well.[2]
Blok was born in Oegstgeest.[1] He studied Medieval history at the University of Amsterdam, where he obtained a degree in 1953. In 1960 he earned his doctorate cum laude at the same university under J.F. Niermeyer with a thesis titled Een diplomatisch onderzoek van de oudste particuliere oorkonden van Werden.[4] Blok had a long teaching career at the University of Amsterdam on the topic of settlement history related to the onomastics of place names, first a teaching assignment from 1967 to 1976, and subsequently as extraordinary lector (1976–1980), extraordinary professor (1980–1986) and finally as full professor from 1986 to 1990, when he took up emeritus status.[4] He died on 6 February 2019, aged 94.[5][6]
Blok was elected a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1984.[7]
