Jeff Waage
20-01 2023 21:14
wrote:
I was so sad to hear today of John's passing. We had only been in touch a month ago, for the first time in a couple years, and I was looking forward to rekindling again our long relationship that has flowed and ebbed these past 40 odd years. We arrived from the US as complete strangers of exactly the same age on the same plane in September 1975, both with new Marshall Scholarships, having independently chosen to study entomology as postgraduates at Imperial College Silwood Park, the first students ever to go there on that scheme. Locals were baffled at the coincidence, and I think John and I were for quite a while ourselves. We were quite different people in a way that engendered a true complementarity and friendship, and a lasting relationship which we could always just pick up as our lives crossed again in our careers that followed. John was intensely thoughtful, practical and wonderfully imaginative. One of my fondest memories was the weeks we spent in Malaysian cocoa fields figuring out how to control a new pest of cocoa there. He showed me there and elsewhere how to do science for a purpose, and not just for an intellectual thrill, and introduced me to the pleasure of scientific problem solving, which later became my passion as well. Although John could put on a "serious demeanor" like few others, he had the driest and most wonderful sense of humour, and working with him was just plain fun. HIs outstanding work, in UK, in South Africa, and in so many other places, was achieved with patience and persistence, a philosophical approach to setbacks and a determination to overcome them. It was particularly wonderful to see his science and policy work with Megan emerge and develop as such a deeply intellectual as well as a personal relationship, People like John come along very rarely. They dont make a lot of noise, they dont seek fame, but they get things done and inspire others, such what they achieve is enormous and lasting. I am so sorry we have lost such a kind, modest, imaginative and determined person as John, He has left so much that he can be proud of, but I will miss him so.
Jeff Waage
20-01 2023 21:14
wrote:
I was so sad to hear today of John's passing. We had only been in touch a month ago, for the first time in a couple years, and I was looking forward to rekindling again our long relationship that has flowed and ebbed these past 40 odd years. We arrived from the US as complete strangers of exactly the same age on the same plane in September 1975, both with new Marshall Scholarships, having independently chosen to study entomology as postgraduates at Imperial College Silwood Park, the first students ever to go there on that scheme. Locals were baffled at the coincidence, and I think John and I were for quite a while ourselves. We were quite different people in a way that engendered a true complementarity and friendship, and a lasting relationship which we could always just pick up as our lives crossed again in our careers that followed. John was intensely thoughtful, practical and wonderfully imaginative. One of my fondest memories was the weeks we spent in Malaysian cocoa fields figuring out how to control a new pest of cocoa there. He showed me there and elsewhere how to do science for a purpose, and not just for an intellectual thrill, and introduced me to the pleasure of scientific problem solving, which later became my passion as well. Although John could put on a "serious demeanor" like few others, he had the driest and most wonderful sense of humour, and working with him was just plain fun. HIs outstanding work, in UK, in South Africa, and in so many other places, was achieved with patience and persistence, a philosophical approach to setbacks and a determination to overcome them. It was particularly wonderful to see his science and policy work with Megan emerge and develop as such a deeply intellectual as well as a personal relationship, People like John come along very rarely. They dont make a lot of noise, they dont seek fame, but they get things done and inspire others, such what they achieve is enormous and lasting. I am so sorry we have lost such a kind, modest, imaginative and determined person as John, He has left so much that he can be proud of, but I will miss him so.
