John Jay Cunningham, Jnr.

Nicholas' Tribute to his Dad

A Memorial Service was held for John Jay on May 2, 2009. His son, Nicholas, gave a beautiful tribute to his father. Here is a transcript of that tribute.

Good morning. Being so close to my Dad, John Jay Cunningham, Jr., I would just like to share a bit of my experience of him.

Seeing him in day to day to day action, I developed quite a respect for his outstanding qualities. I always admired his sheer intelligence . He knew so much about math, chemistry and physics, particularly, but what I really liked about him is that he would always be helpful and kind to anyone who approached him. If there was something he didn't know, he would take a personal interest in your problem and eventually understand it. So the next time you would see him, he would have your answer.

Another quality of his was his patience and politeness, which constantly amazed me.

Also, as his son I can say that he was a very loving person and faithful to his wife, my mom, Christalia,, and to me, it seemed like they had just been married for a week every day of my life.

I also adored his understanding of people and their situations so well and how he used this ability to do this to directly involve himself in the personal development of everyone he encountered. I remember being very impressed at how professionally and cool-headed he deals with all of his tasks and I don't think there was something in my house that he couldn't fix.

I think my dad was the kind of person you meet once in a lifetime and I wouldn't trade the sixteen and a half years I knew him for anything or anyone in the world. My only regret is to have not known him for even longer. I could go on for about a week and tell you about some of my encounters with him, but I just wanted to share some of my experiences with him.