Dear Jane & Anthony,

It was with great sadness that I heard from ex-colleagues of Jeff’s untimely passing. Sadly, he lost his lengthy and valiant fight against a pernicious and determined disease that robbed him and you of a long, happy, and well-deserved retirement together.

I knew Jeff from when I first started at Link in July 1982 and worked with him for much of our time at Link then Oxford Instruments. During our time at Link, Jeff was a great help to me as I learned the noble art of software programming, an area in which he excelled. Jeff’s contribution to our software developments and products was outstanding and inspiring to others around him.

One of my enduring memories of Jeff in our early careers was of him explaining to me, excitedly, his newly developed Stereo software package for the SEM suite. Many of the wonderful features he showed me were lost on me as I only see using one eye (!) and I was unable to fully appreciate his work! As ever, Jeff was undeterred by my inability to fully appreciate what he had done….

Throughout our time at Oxford Instruments, Jeff always impressed me by his dedication to self-improvement and desire to learn and apply knowledge and techniques to the business. We both had spells running teams and a business abroad and worked closely together as company Directors for several challenging years. Jeff always had some fresh ideas and was eager to share them for the betterment of all. Jeff put so much into the business but, sadly, was unable to enjoy a long and well-deserved retirement. I, fortunately. retired at a healthy 60 and greatly enjoyed 7 years of retirement although I now have Stage 4 bowel cancer and that is limiting and frustrating. Supporting Jeff through his illness will have been very tough for you also, but I do hope that, with time, you will be able to enjoy life fully again, albeit without Jeff.

I send my heartfelt condolences and best wishes to you.