The 20th of June marks the sad anniversary of a year from Gunther Kress’s death. It is an opportunity to remember the generous, kind-hearted friend and colleague for so many of us; the brilliant mind and inspirational intellectual and teacher we are all missing dearly!
We have all been inspired by Gunther’s Socratic methods, his gentle engagement with our ideas, his genuine interest in learning from us and his humble and respectful and equal approach towards all people irrespectively of who they were. Gunther has been ‘large enough to be magnanimous’; a phrase he actually used once in relation to what a PhD examiner should be, without realising that he himself was actually the embodiment of magnanimity in our academia through the way he generously shared his own ideas and offering his time without accepting any credit for this.
Today we are remembering and celebrating his life with great gratitude for having him as a teacher who left an indelible mark on our world views. He has been responsible for the shaping of our academic identities, by role modelling the way we should all conduct ourselves as academics; with magnanimity, joy for life and learning, respect for equality and diversity and a collaborative spirit.
He has been the reason that so many of us in the multimodality community have come so close, having him as our point of reference and academic compass. Let us all honour his memory this day!
With warm wishes and ‘big hugs’ to our multimodality community.
The Visual and Multimodal Research Forum 