Over the weekend I heard the sad news that John Vlissides died after a long battle with cancer. John is best known as one of the "Gang of Four" who produced probably the best book written on software design.

John was one the people I most looked forward to meeting when I attended conferences, I always enjoyed his company and found him very comfortable to be with. He invited me to visit IBM Research for a day, and he was an excellent host as I wandered around the offices where he worked. He was a very dedicated and skilled writer, I can only feel regret that I wasn't able to spend more time working with him. It's very sad to think that I won't bump into him again.

As such a major contributer to the world of patterns, it's very appropriate that this community is making a memorial to him on his wiki page where people can honor his memory by "by sharing stories of how he has helped, supported or inspired you".