I knew John in 1972 and 1973 and again for a short time in 1990. Even after all these years the memories of a stern but fair man remain. Such was the subtlety of his wisdom that several things he said to me didn't really become clear to me until many years later. He taught me how to eat pasta sitting at the dining table in Holden Street and how to wait patiently for something to happen but most of all he showed me that even the lesser well received have a basic right to forgiveness and dignity. I moved away from Sydney in 1991 so didn't see him again but sometimes I would think of him completely out of the blue and that more than anything else indicates the effect he had on me and the subtle differences his persona wrought on my own sense of being. Seventeen years after I wronged his family grievously John forgave me and that in my eyes will always make him divine. Denis.