Jon was one of my dearest friends and just the nicest and most decent person. He was also great fun, he had a dry wit and he always made me laugh. And of course, as others have noted, he was intellectually quite brilliant. We first met as undergraduates at Oxford, we were then Ph.D. students together (also Oxford) and then Junior Research Fellows. We used to walk to lunch to our Colleges (Jon was at Christchurch), and discuss our work. I remember him telling me he was trying out a wacky idea with neglect patients, involving them crossing out lines. Of course, this wacky idea eventually led to a Nature paper. Jon loved guitars and old cars. He had a TR4 which he drove around in, I remember you could see the road moving beneath you through a gap in the floor of the car. Seeing him drive this old car out of the Christchurch gate was quite something. He used to drive out to the Cotswolds to go fishing, he loved fishing in chalk streams. He also at one time ran a club above a pub in Oxford, to indulge his taste for music that was not yet mainstream. Jon and I then both went out to the USA (I have posted a great photo of him at Berkeley, looking very young), and we both came back to lectureships at Cambridge. We had labs opposite each other. He said that when we were old we would both be boring old farts in the same department somewhere. His loss is unbearable.
Jon Driver died suddenly on 28th November 2011. Jon was a wonderful individual; a loving son, husband, father and brother; and an irreplaceable friend and colleague.
This is a place for everyone who knew Jon to share our memories of him and through this to help celebrate his life.
If you would like to add a description of your memories of Jon to this blog please contact g.rees@ucl.ac.uk with the text you would like posted. We welcome any contribution, from short snippets to longer pieces. Please bear in mind this is a place to remember Jon and to help celebrate his life.
As well as this blog, there is also a photograph album to which friends and colleagues are most welcome to contribute. If you would like to add one or more pictures please email it/them to g.rees@ucl.ac.uk
