There are people you meet in life that you think you might spend some time close to. There are other people you know you will never want to spend more than a couple minutes with. And there are people who, from the first second you meet them, you know that they will part of your life for ever.

Last week, I lost such a person in the late John Warren.

John lost a battle with one of the least forgivable cancer, Pancreatic cancer, only months after he finally decided to retire from Disney and spend some long retirement years enjoying his numerous passions.

John was a friend. John was a mentor. John was a fatherly figure. I have often joked (and told him) that without him, I would never be who I am today.

And he is gone.

I met him many years ago, in London, when we both worked at Disney and were both part of the smokers clan… We used to see each other in the smoking zone of the Hammersmith office, often battling wind and rain, taking furious drags on our Marlboros before rushing back inside. But one day, I left the Internet side of the Mouse House and joined its TV/Media side (thanks to M. Beal, another one of my London days mentors) and soon enough, John and I tried to figure out a way make our media buyers embrace the 21st century, dropping VHS tapes and accepting video streaming. This effort took us a good couple of years, a ton of persuasions and John’s entire address book, during which we got to know each other. During this time, I spent numerous hours listening to him and his stories ranging from artistic photography to music through technology, sitting on one of his office chairs, while he kept repositioning every object on his desk to reach perfection. And John had a lot of stories!

We shared numerous passions, had the same views on many subjects and were just 20+ years apart.

John kept talking about his family, his wife, his son, Jay, as well. The true passions of his life out of the office (Funnily enough, a couple of years later, both Jay and I would end up moving to Los Angeles, a couple of months apart and keep bumping into each others at various gigs).

John had done so much in his life (and yet probably not enough to his own eyes). He had so many stories. A lot of them! Tons! We often joked that if someone had gone to Tenerife, John might have been to Elevenerife, but in the end, it was true: he had accomplished so much, done so much, so much more than anyone I know and yet, I am sure I barely brushed the surface of his accomplishments.

John was simply a better person than most of us, one of life’s true good person, one of the good guys!

He’ll be missed…

I’ll miss him…

Until we meet again, Rest In Peace, my friend…