Carol Morley: For me Jeremy will always be four years old. We will always be tossing apple peels over our shoulders to see what shapes they make. He was an affectionate, lovable, bubbly little boy. I can see that he became just such a grown man.

Anonymous: When I was little I was sleeping over at your house and I mentioned to Jeremy that there was a person in my class who I did not like because the person often teased me. I will never forget his response. He told me that I should not listen to people like that and that I have a lot to be confident about.

When I look back on this moment I am amazed at the fact that I was comfortable sharing my feelings with him. It is rare for someone to possess such compassion and maturity at that age.

Jamie Rector: I was stunned. I remember playing volleyball with him at some of the Geophysics picnics back in the early '80's. He was so funny (for an eight year old!).

Susan Orr: We have such fond memories of Jeremy as a young man -- his openness and his delightful sense of humor.

Julia Baskett: I remember Jeremy as an early reader and a great swimmer... Jeremy's Bar Mitzvah was a very special day that Celeste and I were permitted to share with your whole family. We were so impressed by Jeremy's perfect performance at Beth Am.

Chuck Sword: I remember Jeremy when he was about 7 years old. He was always very affectionate with his father. I helped him figure out one of the earliest Macintosh computer games, though as I recall, he solved the toughest parts himself. I can't remember the Mac game (though I'd probably recognize it if I heard it); it involved a vampire and a castle.

I attended Jos's Bar Mitzvah, and noted how proud his mother was that he had chosen on his own to follow that path.

Years went by, and I almost didn't recognize the well-spoken, personable young man that Amy and I met last summer. We were struck by his personality, his intelligence, and his potential. We are so sorry that we, and you, will never have the chance to see where he would have gone.

Jan Lieberman: At 25 he was tall, handsome, brilliant, inventive, a scholar ("Jan, cool it!"), a creative genius, a provocative thinker, but most of all a lover of people. His goal in life seemed to be to make everyone he met feel so good about themselves that they believed their dreams could be realized.

Misa Nishio: We got to meet Jos in the summer of 1997. Our contacts were limited but he left a strong impression on us. He was always joking and made us laugh, but what I remember most was his kindness. One evening he sat with my daughter Mona and watched the children's ballet lesson video that Diane had given her. I don't think the video was interesting to him, but he sat with her and watched the whole thing.

That summer we brought you a bottle of wine from Alsace(France). He liked the wine very much, saying "I usually don't like wine, but I like this one a lot." Later when I found that he didn't even drink coffee, I wondered if it was his gesture of kindness. [Dad remembers that he drank wine only when the situation expected it.]

Dave Nichols: He was always a bundle of energy when we met.

Joyce Harris: He was one of the most creative, witty, and irrepressible young men I have ever known. He had a wonderful ability to charm people no matter what their age and always seemed older and more capable than his years. One of my fondest memories of him was about 4th grade -- he wanted to be a psychiatrist.

Bill Symes: I remember Jos gently warning Matt Schwab away from my office last summer, telling Matt that he had to quit talking to me and get on with his thesis.

Ruth Veinott: When I'd phone his mother, I recall "him speaking on the phone with me with various foreign accents."

Stew Levin (story 1):

Why the wrench is flourescent orange ...

During high school, Jos did volunteer bicycle repair in East Palo Alto. Volunteers had to supply their own tools. Like many mechanics, he found his tools slowly disappearing. To combat accidental acquisition, Jos spray-painted his tools with bright orange paint. Tools stopped wandering after that.

However, one drawback of this procedure arose --- the socket wrench did not like paint gumming up its works. It took disassembly, a long soak in paint thinner, and relubrication to fix the problem.

Stew Levin (story 2):

Back in 1993-4, Jon and Diane had rented out their house to our family during one of his sabbaticals. Jos, having grown tired of Pomona College, decided to head to Alaska with one of his buddies, stopping in several places along the way, including Stanford. This was a bit over a month before the Claerbouts were due back from overseas.

One afternoon the two of them showed up out of the blue and proceeded to take a vacation up the coast using Diane Claerbout's car. Upon their unscheduled return, they proceeded to camp out in sleeping bags in the living room for a few days until the Alaska arrangements were complete. My wife Diane was somewhat put out by the intrusion until she reminded herself that they were teenagers. I think Diane Claerbout was much more put out than my Diane when she heard the news.

Anyhow, the evening before their scheduled departure, Jos asked our opinion if he should leave his mom's car in the long-term parking lot at the San Francisco airport for the next 30+days until his parents returned. We nixed that idea in a hurry! Somewhat surprisingly, they were unaware of the incredible bargain that SamTrans offers - the 7F express bus ran right to the airport for $1.10 as I recall. So first thing in the morning, I dropped them off at the bus stop across from the Stanford Shopping Center and they were on their adventurous way.

Postscript -- Boy did they ever leave Diane Claerbout's care a mess! Took over two hours to empty, clean, reassemble, etc. that hatchback before it was presentable again.

Stew Levin (story 3): Subject: A Jos testimonial
Back about two years ago, I took the time to put Jos's web pages to the "Lynx test". This is a test where you access the pages using the Lynx full-screen text browser to see how unnavigable and content-free a site may be. At least 80 percent of Fortune 500 sites fail this test badly. Jos's pages came through gloriously -- every image link had alternate text describing the link and almost all pages were navigable with text links only. Couldn't make a single suggestion for improvement in that regard.
Bravo!

Yilmaz family:
Johannes left us all so suddenly
In the Spring of His Life
Saying Farewell to us all
And to His unfinished accomplishments.

But he lives on in our hearts
That He so very kindly touched upon
But now filled by the sorrow of His Farewell
O streaming tears in my eyes could only speak.

Father gave him the distilling intelligence
Mother gave him the caring affection
But the magnetism was genuinely his own
Simply us all wanted to be near Jos.

A brief encounter it was with Him
David of Michelangelo has come alive in Jos
With His hands so very majestically beautiful
And just as,

Johannes was a prime pronouncement
of perfect humanity.

to The Life of Jos

to Memories of Jos