Seven years ago, last
night, I got one of those calls you hate to get: my friend Gregory had died. It
wasn’t unexpected – he’d been sick a long time – but it
left a void. In HR circles he was a classic: positive, networked to the max, witty,
and wise; and in our circle of friends, he was a real character: quick with a
clever phrase that produced a chuckle every time you remembered it. He traveled
in lots of circles, and in each he was the one always telling the truth:
whether you wanted to hear it, or it was comfortable, or not. He was honest with himself and that seemed to
give him the courage and right to be that with the rest of us: you could count
on him for the truth, and that in itself was and still is a hard quality to
find. His memory inspires me and all the other friends he left behind to be
truthful with ourselves and others every day.
That’s what friends are for…. forever.
Patrick Spencer Johnson
(1938 – 2017): American physician and author
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