John’s grandson Graham Bransford 

You may not know- but John was a wildly talented musician and it was a passion of his throughout his life. We were certain the musical talent had left the family until Graham came into the picture. Graham is immensely talented, humble, and hunger to continuously learn. 

My condolences to the family on loosing an amazing man from your lives.

I only met John a few times, but was introduced to his amazing ideas and discoveries about how people learn by my first mentor, Tom Carr, in an honors Psychology course at MSU.   One of his ideas was so powerful, clever, yet simple, that I could replicate it myself as an undergrad and see his ideas manifest before my eyes in my own data, that I collected myself, in my own project.  It had to do with the most important part of reading -- building your very own movie in your mind that goes far beyond the words you saw.   I think this was the beginning of my personal journey in cognitive science and the learning sciences.  Problem based learning in the Carr lab with nothing but paper, pencil, and a stopwatch, but a whole big set of powerful theoretical constructs inspired by JB.

I only me John once or twice. The last time it seemed like from his speech patterns that maybe he was struggling with some health issues, but it was such an amazing conversation nonetheless… about Jasper math I think. There was a sparkle in his eye and he challenged my imagination in a good way with sly, penetrating questions. I was starstruck getting to meet a legend in the field, disarmed by his folksiness, and energized afterwards. Also a little sad that he was struggling with lower mechanics of fluent articulation while clearly thinking such bright thoughts.

Like many others I've talked to this week, I long to learn about any tributes to John as a person and also his immense contribution to our field.  If anyone hears of progress on this please keep me in the loop. 

Bruce

brucemc@stanford.edu