Oh, Jon... where do I start? You were one of the first people I met when I joined Ripmax and because I'd left home and relocated to Enfield, you looked after me. Took me under your wing, as it were, and made sure I was OK. You made sure I had somewhere to fly, made sure I made plenty of new friends and, to make sure I never got bored, you gave me a selection of your unfinished models to complete! That was twenty-seven years ago and yet it feels like yesterday. Since then we worked together almost every day. How I miss our early morning chats where we'd put the world to rights. Even if you didn't have all the answers, you always had a quote or a phrase readily at hand to bring a smile to my face; 'What gets measured, gets done', 'Get best on the basics', 'A one-stop shop', 'Any fool can give it away' and of course 'Teach a man to fish…' Jon, you always had a smile an your face and you had so much patience for anyone who showed an interest in anything you did. Of course, under the humorous exterior, you were fabulously passionate - someone who didn't suffer fools gladly, hated a job half-done or done badly - and you were often outspoken. If something needed saying, you were always the one to say it. Never shying away from work and always the first person to roll up their sleeves and get stuck in, you really were someone with true vision. You're never going to be forgotten - I'm going to be quoting you for evermore, I promise. If anyone asks me to describe the UK's favourite trainer of its time and one of the best-selling models of the 80s and 90s, I'm just going to exclaim 'what more can I say? It's a wooden box with wings!' then smile and think of you. Bob Petrie