He was one of the most knowledgeable luthiers, restorers, and experts of our time, as well as a person of great integrity and dedication, qualities he demonstrated throughout his long professional career.

Our last meeting took place in Mittenwald in 2022, during the 9th International Violin Making Competition, where he was serving on the competition jury and I was attending as a correspondent for Archi Magazine. It was a pleasant opportunity to talk and to learn more about aspects of his life in violin making, enriching my understanding of both the man and his work: from meeting his wife, Anneleen van der Grinten, in Newark during the final year at violin making school, to his many travels, from the conferences he gave wherever he was invited, to his teaching engagements and the research he carried out at the Oberlin workshops in the United States and throughout Europe, working for the Entente Internationale des Maîtres Luthiers et Archetiers (EILA), without forgetting his forays into Australia and Asia.

From 1982 onward, his professional life was inextricably linked to Charles Beare, alongside whom he shared more than thirty years of work in Beare’s workshop.

The world of violin making will always be grateful to him not only for the care he devoted to the many instruments entrusted to him, but also for research projects that will remain milestones in the history of the discipline: from the exhibition and catalogue “British Violin” in 1988 to the research on the Panormo family, culminating in the exhibition and catalogue of 2016.