Hi Jude,
Here are a couple of photos I took of your Dad over the years. The first is from what I think was the first Business Objects Kick Off we attended together. This was in January 2003 and was held at the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas, it was the first time I’d been to Las Vegas and we’d flown direct from the UK, arriving pretty late in the day and very tired, but, true to form we tried to keep going, unfortunately, it was all too much for your Dad that night and he managed to fall asleep in the bar.
Your Dad focused on a slightly different area of the business than I did at Business Objects, so sadly we didn’t get to work too closely together, but the office was always a bit more fun when he was around. I have vivid memories of what I think was the first meeting we had together, your Dad drove us both into London from the Maidenhead office in his soft top Porsche on a lovely summer day for a meeting with one of the top partners of our company. I don’t remember much about the meeting itself, but I remember having a lot of fun on the drive in and the way back, your Dad was just fun to be around.
Despite moving continents and many jobs, we still kept in contact and it was great to catch up in October 2011 and meet you and your Mum. I was on holiday in San Francisco with my wife and son Ben. We had a lovely couple of hours of catching up on work, family and shared lots of stories about our mutual friends around the world.
There’s a song in Les Miserables called ‘A heart full of love’, that’s what your Dad had. In the show it’s about two people that don’t even know each others names falling in love, but where your Dad was concerned it was about having love for everything in this life. His family, his friends, his work, loving everything openly and without restraint. I think that’s why so many people loved him right back.
