I WRITE in appreciation of Simon Carroll, to let you know his effect on just one of many who worked with him. Like most of his friends, I knew him simply as Cas.

That is how he was introduced to me by the jeweller and silversmith Wally Gilbert, my then colleague at Royal National College for the Blind (RNC). Cas had applied to work as an artist-in-residence. Seeing his portfolio, I knew straight away that we should have him with us.

His immense physical energy, his imagination, his openness and his generous sensibility all came into play at RNC. He was indeed a real artist.

He was particularly drawn to the work of those students who had never had sight, the individual and uniquely expressive elements of their work.

He gave them his fulsome, characteristically larger than life encouragement, while at the same time generously acknowledging the impact that they too were having on him. This, he said, never left him and, indeed, he always referred to the influence of those students’ work.

In his last months, having closed the studio in Cornwall and returned to Hereford, he hired a studio over the Tourist Information Office in King Street.

Inside it was a new project, belying his situation, small pieces, drawings and prints hung on drying lines and large canvases at various stages, filled the room.

Characteristically, when he was not there, one of these paintings was set full in the window looking up Broad Street. That was Cas, Simon Carroll. Unforgettable.

Hereford should be proud of him, his artistry and his achievements.

JOHN EVERETT, Formerly Head of Art and Creative Arts, RNC