A depiction of Herbert Hoover fishing is seen July 29, 2026 at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, Iowa.
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Belgium’s former ambassador to the United States Dirk Wouters and professor of international law Jan Wouters, no relation, visited the Quad-Cities this week on the way to the reopening of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch.
Hoover, the 31st president, was born in West Branch. The museum and library opened in 1962 but has been closed for a year to undergo a $20 million renovation. The Hoover Library is one of 15 presidential libraries in the National Archives system and the only one in Iowa.
The two Belgian dignitaries and their relatives arrived in the Quad-Cities late Tuesday. Belgium has a long history with the 31st president and the city of Moline, home to the Center for Belgian Culture and Belgium’s honorary consulate that serves Iowa and western Illinois. Patrick Van Nevel, the honorary consul, led the pair and their family during the trip.
From left, Jan Wouters, director of the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies at KU Leuven, a Belgian University, and Dirk Wouters, former Belgian ambassador to the United States, sit for a photograph in Wyndham Moline on Wednesday, Aug. 5. The pair stayed in the Quad-Cities during their trip to the re-opening of the Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch.
NINA BAKER
The group began on Wednesday with a visit to the John Deere World Headquarters in East Moline.
“We learned there are 18,500 components in the combine … But we are familiar with John Deere because in Belgium, we are surrounded by John Deere,” Dirk Wouters said, prompting laughter.
He joked that there was a legend that when millions of Belgian immigrants boarded their first trains in the United States, they were told to get off the train and select their new home city only when someone shouted “John Deere.”
Large numbers of Belgian immigrants settled in Moline in the late 1800s. Moline once boasted the largest Belgian population in the country, according to the City of Moline.
The dignitaries visited the Sacred Heart Church, toured the old Belgian neighborhood and held a reception with members of the Center for Belgian Culture.
Dirk Wouters first visited the Quad-Cities as an ambassador in 2017 on a diplomatic trip and in 2019 for the 100th anniversary of the honorary consulate. He passed through in 2024 when he attended the celebration for the 150th anniversary of Hoover’s birth in West Branch. Jan Wouters, who directs the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies at KU Leuven, a Belgian university, also attended the 2024 trip. Both said they have positive impressions of the Quad-Cities.
Jan Wouters said Belgium has a warm relationship with Hoover. Before he was president, Hoover created the Commission for Relief in Belgium in 1914 after Germany invaded the country during World War I. Millions of Belgians suffered from a prolonged food shortage. Over five years, the commission supplied billions of tons of food to 10 million citizens before dissolving after the war ended.
The successor to Hoover’s commission, the Belgian American Educational Foundation, now runs programs for researchers and graduate students to travel between the two countries. When Hoover last visited Brussels in 1958, the then-Belgian Premier declared that date, July 5, Hoover Day.
“We Belgians have always been extremely grateful for that incredible humanitarian work,” Jan Wouters said of Hoover’s efforts. “We would have starved without his role.”
A model of Herbert Hoover fishing as a boy is pictured July 29, 2026 in the gift shop of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, Iowa.
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