Memories from Katherine Backler
Dear John,
I’m sorry to have spent less time with you than I’d have liked, but I wanted to thank you for being so warm and welcoming in my first years at College. I think very fondly of sitting next to you at SGMs while you sketched gorgeous drawings of the hall architecture on the agendas and reports, or showed me the charming (and very useful!) portraits of Fellowship candidates under discussion that you’d produced during their vivas - and all this alongside being well informed and thoughtful. I also think fondly of your good humour during some long and trying discussions. Those meetings could have been so daunting for a new Fellow, and can be less than pleasant even to less-new Fellows, but your warmth and wit made them not just bearable but even enjoyable! We will all miss you, but I hope you are deriving peace from the knowledge of a life well lived.
With gratitude, affection and prayers,
Katherine
