Tribute to Jon Hodge

I remember John fondly ads a great and generous colleague, and one of the most interesting historians of evolutionism this side of the Channel. My first interaction with him was memorable. As a postdoc at Exeter, I co-organized the fourth conference on the cultural history of heredity there, and Hans-Jörg Rheinberger and I thought it would be wonderful to have Jonathan Hodge. He was indeed a lively presence at the conference, and since we had built the whole project around our appreciating for François Jacob's book on "the logic of life", Jon did not hesitate to express his disdain for this book in unmistakable terms. Yet he remained a respectful and productive companion of this project and an important source of inspiration for our own book, which eventually would come out of our project.