from Brett Porter:
When I was learning to get involved at Apache, Dion was particularly encouraging to me. He was the first guy I met in person from Maven and Apache since he organised the Sydney Java User Group that I started attending around the same time I became a committer.
He was the first chair of Maven when it became a TLP, and did a significant amount of work on Maven 1.0. Even after having moved on from Maven more than three years ago, he remains the fourth-largest code contributor to the project, and we wouldn't have come this far without his efforts.
A genuinely good bloke, he will be greatly missed.
from Rahul Akolkar:
Dion's exemplary work at the ASF has touched, and will continue to touch, numerous people and products. Having worked with Dion on one project, I was always impressed by his technical vision and ability to welcome and mentor new contributors. Dion was one of the kindest souls around -- I remember his "we're lucky to have you" personal email when I became an ASF member, and many other occasions when he was similarly and extraordinarily supportive and gracious. He will be sorely missed.
from Paul Libbrecht
Dion was a very dynamic committer... together we shared the fun of Apache Jelly and tried to shape its rubbery aspects.
Dion's initiatives were always striving for quality and I really appreciated working with him.
The announcement of him demise is a shock for me. We'll miss him.