Don was a major formative influence for many, including my brother Michael and me in the years of our early teens. His quiet strength and disciplined, kindly ways, his great listening ability, his encouragement, all of this drew us through the beginnings of the difficult adolescent years. Don predated James Dean and in that sense was no copycat styled personality. His character was entirely his own, uncrafted, yet he had a similar magnetic personality that immeasurably and better influenced our own and my personal development in ways that have underpinned my own life and achievements in ways, albeit abstract and difficult to trace with any exactitude. Yet I am proud to claim, hopefully honestly, that he was, and is still, a major influence in my own life. How fortunate I am to have known him. Vale, brave warrior. David James