5 years ago
Roy & Karalyn Patterson
Ray and Roy were academic/research colleagues for many years and – like most or perhaps all of Ray’s colleagues – Roy respected and admired Ray’s work enormously. They also really liked one another, which is not always true of colleagues in the competitive research world. At some point in those years, Roy & I (Karalyn) also became close personal friends with Ray & Valerie. We exchanged email messages about this-and-that; we visited each other’s homes, cooked for one another, ate out in restaurants. We even had some shared holidays abroad, for example Amsterdam in the autumn of 2013, Malaga and Granada – including a brilliant day at the Al Hambra – in the spring of 2016. They were wonderful travelling companions: knowledgeable, enthusiastic, thoughtful and agreeable.
Ray had a splendid way with words and a terrific sense of humour. A few years ago, when Ray & Valerie came to visit us in Cambridge, they brought us an unusual and beautiful Euphorbia Trigona plant. Ray said that, knowing Roy’s love of conifers, he thought that this cactus-like Euphorbia would please Roy because it has no flowers. The plant was small on its arrival, but it soon began to grow, and grow, and grow, and now, about 2 years later, it is approximately 2.5 times its original height. We sent Ray & Valerie a photo of its new impressive size, and Ray replied to say how pleased he was by its thriving. He added: “Soon, of course, you may need to buy a bigger house, but we could give tips on moving!”.
Roy and I find it hard to express how much we will miss him, and also how greatly he will be missed by others. I think it is not an exaggeration to say that there are two sorts of people in the world: those who loved Ray Meddis, and those who didn’t know him.
