tomclegg.net |
John Michael Clegg, in hindsight Posted March 21, 2004 September 1996 "No-one could be more indignant than John at his sudden departure, but we are confident that wherever he is now he is already at work trying to improve the efficiency and fairness of the operation." Bill Bezanson: "As I polled many people for ideas for this eulogy, I was impressed by how frequently submissions included words such as:
"John had a high disdain for sloppy reasoning, and an almost complete intolerance for background music." Treasurer of the Human Factors in Telecommunications committee: "John enjoyed people. Some might be surprised when I put it this way, because he sometimes expressed his disappointment with the human race, and certainly he didn't suffer fools gladly. You have to realize that John's work centred around identifying human foibles. He had an enormous collection of jokes and photographs, mostly true examples of the crazy things people did because they were ... people." Barry Clegg: "He was detained in Toronto by car problems and had to rent a car. He hated its colour, a bilious mix of pink and purple. He asked me what colour I thought it was, and I couldn't answer. 'Of course you can't answer,' he said. 'There's no word for this colour in any Indo-European language.' He was probably right." Keith Newton: "As for his proficiency in squash, I only know that he was unfailingly enthusiastic. On many occasions I would ask him 'How did you do?' and he would grin and say 'Not bad -- I came in second.'" "The last time we saw John was some years ago on a fleeting visit he made to Munich, and we remember walking with him in the Englisher Garten, where people tend to dress up a bit for their Sunday promenade -- John was of course dressed in some old shorts, a sweatshirt with a hockey slogan, red knee socks, and sneakers." "I will always remember his sense of humour, his quick-wittedness, and his rare moments of sensitivity." |