Dear Ken,
Thank you for passing on the sad news about John’s death. I hadn’t seen him for many years, and only talked to him infrequently on the telephone in the last decade or so, but I owed him a great deal even though my own relationship was brief. I had scarcely arrived at the Wingate when he left for Uppingham, but as far as I was concerned he made an enduring indeed permanent impression on me as a person and as a teacher. I couldn’t have wished for or expected a kinder mentor. He provided a most understanding and notable example for a youngster to follow in his first job and in a new country. As my own father had also taught at Uppingham many years earlier I also went to see him there and I know just what an excellent job he did, at times under conditions of considerable difficulty. He was a truly great and inspiring headmaster and in Ethiopia he left an amazing legacy. The school he headed may no longer exist in the form he left but those he taught and guided (students and staff) will, as Shimelis said so well, always remember him. And those students make up an exceptional group who have demonstrated their quality over nearly half a century. They, and Ethiopia, owe him a great deal.
His death will be a great loss to all who knew him. He lived an impressive, indeed a wonderful life, and his students, his friends indeed all who worked with him will not forget his wisdom, his understanding and his sympathy; nor his achievements here – his unmatched legacy in and for Ethiopia.
Patrick Gilkes
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