John and I first crossed paths in the early 90’s when we both worked on Earthwinds, a Hilton backed project, to be the first to circumnavigate the world in a balloon (in far less than 80 days).  When the project moved to Reno, NV we spent several years working together and relaxing between crises, test flights, and actual flights/launches.  Over several launches and attempts, inspired engineering, opportunism, and improvisation were the hallmarks of John and the remainder of our small technical team.  Many times, his friend the hand of fate made itself known to us mere mortals.

As a result of those years, we both moved on to work on Virgin Global Challenger, a Richard Branson backed project, with the same goal, but in Marrakech, Morocco.  Completely different venue but we still managed to fit in several off-topic adventures resulting from simply going for a walk.  Whether in the high Atlas Mountains or the souk in Marrakech, John was always ready to see what life had to offer, that somehow he had not experienced yet.  His drive to experience life and all its’ aspects was refreshing and at times inspiring, especially when we were being battered about by that pesky hand of fate and its’ sidekick reality.

Many balloon community friends in the US and around the world are missing John, and will remember him for his smile, presence, humor and technical talent.  Personally, I will recall those as well as the friend to came out, picked up a shovel, and helped dig out part of mountain for our house foundation in the Sierra Nevada. 

 John, I hope your last flight west, was peaceful, painless, and as you had hoped for.

Soft Landings,

Koh Murai