David was a remarkably dynamic man. To have instigated change on the level he proposed was courageous, bold and fundamentally the right thing to do, if we are to be true to Carr-Gomms memory. David understood what no other person in his postion has perhaps fully grasped. Our founder was an advocate of social change, not of creating houses where older people may live. That was a by product of a revolutionary and inspired approach to change. David understood that change was essential to the survival of the Abbeyfield movement and approached the process in an incredibly widespread consultative manner. So the conclusions which were drawn became unarguably the correct ones.

David spoke to everyone and whether he agreed with them or not, one felt his innate warmth. He was considered to be a freind to my organisation and by extention to me. having worked with him on some projects, I find his loss is the greatest blow imaginable to the movement. Had he survived, I have little doubt that in a few decades time, he would be talked of with the same reverence that we tend to reserve for Richard Carr-Gomm.

David talked fondly and openly about his own family and would undoubtedly have been an immense force for good within it. So one can barely imagine how they can come to terms with the vacuum he will have left. My thoughts and those of my organisation are with that family. One hopes they can take strength from his enormous achievements at Abbeyfield, which should manfist themselves fully over the next few years.