and Parliamentary leader for the next 15 years and was lijsttrekker for the elections of 1952, 1956 and 1959. In January 1963, Oud announced his retirement from national politics, stating that he would not stand for the 1963 election. Shortly after the election, on 16 May 1963, Oud stepped down as Leader and Parliamentary leader, and was succeeded as Leader by Edzo Toxopeus and as Parliamentary leader by Roelof Zegering Hadders until Edzo Toxopeus took over as Parliamentary leader on 2 July 1963 but retained his seat in the House of Representatives and continued to serve as a backbencher until the end of the parliamentary term on 5 June 1963. Following the end of his active political career, Oud occupied numerous seats as a corporate director and nonprofit director for supervisory boards in the business and industry world and for supervisory boards for several international non-governmental organisations and research institutes (Royal Dutch Shell, Philips, Van Lanschot, Netherlands Atlantic Association, Carnegie Foundation and the Royal Netherlands Historical Society) and served on several state commissions on behalf of the government. Life Life before politics Oud came from a middle-class family. His father traded in tobacco, wine, and later stocks, and served as alderman in Purmerend. Oud attended HBS in Amsterdam, graduating in 1904. He continued to study to become notary between 1904 and 1907. During this time he had become member of the board of the League of Freethinking Propaganda Associations, the freethinking liberal youth organisation. He took a private courses in registration in Gorinchem between 1907 and 1909. Between 1909 and 1911 he was civil servant within the ministry of Finance responsible for registration and government possessions. In 1911 he became a tax collector on Texel. In 1912 he took his matriculation to study law at the University of Amsterdam. He combined his work as tax collector with his study of law. In the same year he married Johanna Cornelia Fischer, from this marriage they got one son. In 1914 he became tax collector in Ommen. Meanwhile, he was mobilised as Sergeant of the seventh regiment infantry, which was stationed near Amsterdam between 1914 and 1916. Between 1915 and 1919 he was member of the national board of the VDB. He graduated in 1917 on basis of a disputation. Political life For the VDB Oud was elected in 1917 election for the VDB, the last election with runoff voting. He defeated