I was a PhD student with Neil from 1986-1990. Perhaps I was drawn to his group because he reminded me a lot of my father, a chemistry professor also born in London in the 1930s, with vivid memories of the war years; as a family we'd also spent a year in Cambridge in the mid-1970s. They had a lot of similarities in language and sense of humor, and both responded similarly when I surprised them in some way. My research was in trying to come up with some theoretical understanding of the recently-discovered quasicrystals, and while this was not a central research area for Neil, he always expressed interest and was full of insight into directions to pursue. I was appreciative of his consistent respect - I learned so much working with him. I also learned a lot about the Physical Review journals with Neil, as an author and a referee, which he encouraged, knowledge that was very handy years later when I started to work for the journals myself (and discovered more of the impact Neil had had on those journals). We'd been mostly out of touch recently though we chatted a few years ago when I had a chance to visit Cornell. I was aware of his continued work with hydrogen and superconductivity, and was cheering when I heard some of what he predicted was actually being discovered. His passing is a loss, but I know some of his kindness, insights, and wisdom live on in those who worked with or were influenced by him.