I learned from SymOmega that Dan Hughes died yesterday.
I owe a huge amount to Dan. He invited Jack van Lint and me to lecture at Westfield College in the early 1970s and encouraged us to publish the lecture notes, which have now evolved into the student text Graphs, Codes, Designs and their Links.
Then in 1986 he persuaded Queen Mary College, London, to offer me a position to tempt me away from Oxford. And here I am still.
In September 2008, I spent a couple of weeks in Rome; Rosemary Bailey, Dina Ghinelli and I visited Dan at the farm where he lived in Valcelle, near Torrita di Siena. He took great pleasure in showing us around the countryside, taking us to places off the main tourist trail.
He is much missed.
Thank you Peter. Dan was my father and your kind words are much appreciated. I think that’s the fish restaurant that he liked so much. Christa
Yes: here is what it says in my diary:
The first item on the agenda was lunch; Dan had booked us in at a favourite restaurant of his, Pesce d’Oro, on the shore of Lago di Chiusi, specialising in fish from the lake. By now it was raining quite seriously and the view of the lake was not optimal. We hurried inside and took our table. At Dan’s suggestion, we ordered something not on the menu, a starter made up of four separate dishes, starting with a tartare, and including their speciality, a lake fish which is seared over a fire of lake reeds until the skin chars, and then marinaded. All excellent, as were the main courses (I had extremely tasty fish which was meant to be catfish but was perch instead since they clearly hadn’t managed to catch any catfish) and the house white wine and unsalted Tuscan bread. My dessert, Crema Catalana came to the table flaming dramatically.