John has been a huge inspiration for me. I never had the opportunity to meet him in person, but the kind of work he has done here is irreplaceable. He helped everyone, and was always kind and friendly. If I can be half as consistent as John, I’ll have achieved a lot.
@clarkej was a great friend and calming influence to the community. He had his favorite causes like testing that he promoted with great diligence. However, when there were contentious opinions in the community, it was his calming influence that tended to bring everything back to centered. As everyone here has also noted, I will miss him. Thank you John for your calming advice and wonderful enlightening influence to the community. God bless you and a warm good bye.
It’s clear from the comments here that @clarkej had a positive influence on many of us. I had a few direct interaction with him in the forums, and I’m amazed how often I would search the forums for something and find he had provided an answer. He will certainly be missed.
It is really sad. He was a strong figure in the forum. He was a great explainer and a problem solver. His knowledge and experience is beyond my imagination. It’s really sad.
My condolences to @clarkej’s family and to his personal and non-personal friends of his in this community. A lost to the community for sure.
His way of giving solutions mostly is not a direct answer, but always a precise direction for an exploration for us to find the answer. And learns new things along the way. A true mentor he is.
Such a loss to the community, and the world of open-source.
John was a guy that provided an answer or a pointer to one so often - you could almost always know that if he replied on your post, it was with a solution.
Hopefully more people of the world will try to emulate him.