Comments on: Goodbye, Jeff https://lithoguru.com/life/?p=96 Musings of a Gentleman Scientist Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.5 By: William Howard https://lithoguru.com/life/?p=96#comment-3677 Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-3677 I’ve been spending much of the morning and yesterday thinking of what Jeff has meant to me. The phrase that keeps comeing to mind is: "Jeff was as broad as the ocean and deep as the sea." The world will remember Jeff for his scientific achievements – that is understandable. But we, his friends, will remember him equally (and in my case, more so) for his friendship and other qualities.

I came to his house to help him build things but it was really an excuse just to spend time with him. We discussed poetry and books. We debated the question of when life actually starts and when taking a life is justified and when it is not. We drank beer together while I listed to his ideas on intellegent design. Once – and only once – I learned something that Jeff didn’t know (and he said I was wrong) – so I razzed him about it once in a while and he took it with good humor. I often thought "If I’m ever in deep trouble – not "short of 50 bucks" trouble, but "at the end of my rope" trouble – Jeff would be the first person I’d call". Jeff gave freely of his time, his stuff and his energy. He took less than he gave. He was one of those people that was not the least bit interested in impressing you. He listened. If you can believe it, he was even smarter than you thought he was. He had wonderful endearing quirks like the coffee cup he never washed. He was a complex man that lived in simplicity, dwelling in a house that he and his wife built with their own hands. He cared – it seemed about everything and everyone.

One could write a book or make a movie – but it would never really capture Jeff. He was truly one of a kind.

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By: Amanda https://lithoguru.com/life/?p=96#comment-3679 Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-3679 Thanks for putting "jefe" out there for others to read about. My uncle was a truly remarkable man. Was he ever!

To be so damn great, yet so humble. It still amazes me, remembering how he was always so interested in what we had to say. He loved the minds of children, I think, partly because he retained his understanding of them even as he grew older.

I’m going to miss him tremendously. Thanks for being a source of his happiness. I know he was happy, after all.

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By: Scott https://lithoguru.com/life/?p=96#comment-3680 Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-3680 I am so sorry to hear of this outcome. My condolences to his family and his friends.

Chris, thank you for posting this sad news.

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