John McGraw very unexpectedly died last week. He had only complained about slight dizziness and unease, before he quietly passed away at his desk at home in California. 

It makes no sense.

John had so much to give to the world: ideas, insights, friendliness, and the ever present joke cracking just behind the dead pan smile. He was in Aarhus with the TESIS project 2011-14 and he quickly became key in the Interacting ;inds research group, and in transforming it into a Centre. He contributed along so many dimensions: innovative experiments on human interaction and creativity; deep discussions on culture, cognition, evolution and materiality; attracting a lot of wonderful, smart people to Aarhus for workshops and extended visits. John was a team player, involved in so much ongoing stuff, always willing to help out. This was in some ways a radical departure from his deeply contextual and seminal fieldwork on divination practices in the Guatemalan highlands. But on another more important level there was a clear connection running through everything: an insatiable curiosity for everything human and humane, and a drive to create meaning, and see patterns and trajectories.

This was all coming together in his position as Assistant Professor at Department of Religious Studies, Department of Central American Studies, California State University, Northridge, where he relentlessly pursued a highly productive and creative research trajectory, http://www.johnjmcgraw.com/.

John will be deeply missed, a daring scholar fearlessly embarking on difficult roads where no-one had gone before, and a wonderful, caring and loving person.

Æret være hans minde.

There will be a funeral service for John Friday, July 29th 2016 in Tulsa, Arizona.

Do share your memories of John with his friends, colleagues and family at his facebook page https://www.facebook.com/john.j.mcgraw