Thread: Passing of pen maker Gawdelpus John

I cannot believe this is true. John was a lovely man and had helped me both in person while I was up that way and also over the phone. he was never short in his help for you and all you had to do was contact hime and the problem would be solved. I remember have dinner one night at the club near Neil's (Dai sensei's) house with Neil and tdrumnut (trevor) and his wife to celebrate Johns birthday. I wish Shontara all the best at this time and I wish you well for the future

From my wife sharon and I

Kind regards Ian

I did not know John personally, not being a pen turner, but I was aware of his standing and respect on the forum.

My condolences to his wife, family, friends, pen turners everywhere whose lives have been touched by him and the woodworking community in general. Sadly, one of our finest is no longer with us.

Doug

What a terrible shock!!!
I met him at the Woodshow a couple of years back. But he was always giving contributions in his threads. He was a man that went quietly about his work and as said before, was happy to help any one.
We are a close knit bunch here on the Forum and to lose a member is so very sad.
Thanks Neil for the news. My condolences to his wife and family.

As I do not turn pens, I never had the pleasure of direct contact with John but I remember that he was always willing to lend a helping hand.

May his family mourn their loss but treasure their memories

I am another who has never met John but have always read his
views which were helpful and informative.

My condolences to the family - may he rest in peace.

Allan

RIP John. You will be missed.

Very sad news...a lovely bloke...RIP John...MM

Sad news indeed; I had the pleasure of meeting John on several occasions and he was always there to give advice or help you out if he could. I can add no more to the comments that have already been made. He will be sadly missed. Last time I saw John was at his market stall at Redlands Bay.

Picture of John and Shontara on a happy occasion Gold Coast BBQ .

There will be a big hole the forum that will be hard to fill. Condolences to his family and friends.

Ok funeral arrangements have been made:

Service is being held 3-3:30pm Monday 18 May 2015 at

Great Southern Memorial Park
1774 Mt Cotton Road Carbrook

Shontara would then like everyone to come back to their house to celebrate John's life. Some drinks and nibbles will be provided but please feel free to bring some more (Shontara's preference is caramel ). So from ~4pm at 6 Lemongrove Street Eagleby

If anyone from the God Coast would like a lift up, I will be leaving my place around 2pm

Oh! dear, dear John, your lovely encouragements, your sincere advice, always trying to help. I only spoke with John last week, he made two Watch Part pens for me, to encourage me in my illness!!, I spoke to him about some difficulties I had with CA coming off at the edges, he emailed me with suggestions and pictures of what he did to overcome the problem. Typical of John, helpful and encouraging, always with a chuckle and a smile. I will miss you John, you have been a friend and a mentor to me, farewell my friend, I will miss you dearly. My Regards to Shontara and the the family, my prayers go out to you at your deep loss., Amos

John has been my close friend for 20 years. He got me motivated after family matters crushed me. I've got 40 of his pens, I'll leave them to my folks as I am sure they will be the Picasso of pen making in the future. He was the sort of person who could have united the country. Opinions always honest, he was non critical, but yes he was. Wishing I could master that.making you think and think it was your idea.
Everybody ,and their best friends, always say; full of promise, would have gone far, blah, blah.
the trouble with that for me, is that he was all those things. Came to my house at 3 am when I had family trouble, because he was worried about me. Went far. Yes he went far.
helpful. Well he turned up one day and said that we were going fishing. We went fishing for a week, very therapeutic.
He phoned me last week talking about things he'd discovered. He was rebuilding my motorbike" we rebuilt his Land Rover engine in November three lovely days. John worked things out. I always thought we just needed a bigger hammer!
Look, please, I could go on and on.
any of you who really knew him would say, yep so could we. God Bless John. RIP

Have just managed to get internet after arriving in Vancouver, Canada.

Hard toexplain my distress on reading his news. John certainly was a great bloke , always helpful and full of good cheer and good advice. We will all miss him.

My condolences to Shontara.

Arthur

Originally Posted by PenTurner

Oh! dear, dear John, your lovely encouragements, your sincere advice, always trying to help. I only spoke with John last week, he made two Watch Part pens for me, to encourage me in my illness!!, I spoke to him about some difficulties I had with CA coming off at the edges, he emailed me with suggestions and pictures of what he did to overcome the problem. Typical of John, helpful and encouraging, always with a chuckle and a smile. I will miss you John, you have been a friend and a mentor to me, farewell my friend, I will miss you dearly. My Regards to Shontara and the the family, my prayers go out to you at your deep loss., Amos

I was talking with John last week. He told me about the watch parts. I bought a heap of broken watches a year or so ago, sent them to him and he did me a pen, of watch parts. There's probably a photo of it on this site.

im gutted that he's gone but we did talk about t.his sort of thing when we were working on his car. He would be unhappy to know we were distressed. Celebrate his life not his death.
RIP John. Sam.