JOHN A. MIZZI was a true gentleman, a person with a proud mind of his own who was always ready to lead and to support, to help and to share, a tireless worker who never put his own projects or ambitions before the people he was working with. This is probably why he was such a serious person with such a distinct sense of humour, a very independent person who also truly enjoyed being with others.
All writers and researchers who have asked him for information and advice know that he had a fantastic memory, but he never used it to hold grudges against those who disagreed with him or may have wronged him.
Those of us who were Scouts at St. Aloysius College when Cubbie was Group Scout Leader know how generous he was with his time and with everything he had. In some of the most formative years of our lives, Cubbie was a great source of inspiration, a role model. He most certainly had his ways of doing things but he never let them get in the way of friendship or collaboration.
Recently I had the good fortune of collaborating with him on a story I wrote set in the Second World War. He talked to me about this grandfather, Anton Muscat Fenech, and about the biography he had just written in Maltese. He was a man with an insatiable thirst for knowledge and for shedding light on the past and the present. It is such a joy to work closely with someone so full of life and energy.
I think that much of that energy came from the fact that he was not too concerned with himself, with his own story. It was never really about himself; it was always about others.
Both The Times and Malta Today have published tributes.
adriangrima.org 