Kees W. Bolle
Born	(1927-12-02)December 2, 1927 Dordrecht, Netherlands
Died	October 14, 2012(2012-10-14) (aged 84) Biddeford, Maine
Nationality	Dutch
Academic background
Alma mater	Leiden University University of Chicago
Doctoral advisor	Mircea Eliade
Academic work
Discipline	History
Sub-discipline	History of religion
Institutions	University of California, Los Angeles
Main interests	Indian religions

Cornelis Willem (Kees) Bolle (December 2, 1927 - October 14, 2012) was a Dutch historian who was Professor of the History of Religions at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Biography

Kees W. Bolle was born in Dordrecht, Netherlands on 2 December 1927. He studied theology at Leiden University, and the history of religion and Sanskrit at the universities of Chicago and Madras. He received his PhD in the history of religion at the University of Chicago in 1961. Bolle wrote his thesis in India and was supervised by Mircea Eliade.

After gaining his PhD, Bolle lectured at Brown University. In the 1960s, Bolle was appointed Professor of the History of Religion at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Here he set up a nationally recognized undergraduate major in the interdisciplinary study of religion Bolle retired as Professor Emeritus in 1991, and subsequently moved to Portland, Oregon, and then moved to Maine in 2000 where he died on October 14, 2012.

Selected works

• The Freedom of Man in Myth, 1968
• The Persistence of Religions, 1971
• The Enticement of Religion, 2002
• Religion Among People, 2017

Sources

• "Cornelis Willem (Kees) Bol". Dutch Studies (in Dutch). Retrieved September 9, 2020.
• "Kees W. Bolle". Portland Press Herald. October 26, 2012.