Tribute to Jon Hodge

Generous. Encouraging. Kind. Funny. Wise. Many of the thoughts shared here by Jon’s colleagues and students pick out the same characteristics that I saw from my viewpoint as a friend of one of his daughters. Jon and Anne were always welcoming to Cynthia’s friends and their kindness and humour has made it a real pleasure to keep in touch with them over the years. Jon had the lovely quality of making you feel like he was always pleased to see you and interested to hear how you were and what you were doing. Thirty years on from making a decision to divert from Neuroscience to doing a Linguistics MPhil, I still have the Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language that arrived out of the blue at my house from Heffers Booksellers (back in the day when it still seemed unusual to have shops deliver something to your home). I have just taken it off the shelf and I’ve kept the compliment slip in it, that reminds me that it was sent on behalf of Dr M. J. S. Hodge, University of Leeds. What a kind and generous thing to do for your daughter’s friend and what a lovely man.