Antonino Vallesi

I felt very sad by receiving the terrible news of Don passing away from Tim Shallice, who (an ironic twist) had introduced me to Don in Bressanone, Italy in 2006. A year after, I flew to Toronto as a post-doc, his “last post-doc” as he always enjoyed saying. During the years I spent working in his lab, I learned a great amount of science and life skills from him. Above all, I learned how to deal with the inevitable difficulties with an always positive and energetic attitude, from facing the rigid Torontonian winter with a Canadian smile plastered on my obviously Southern Italian face (also thanks to the Ushanka-style hat he gave me as a welcome present), to being able to wake up at 5 am in order to be (almost) on time for our 6.30 am weekly meeting, before his very busy day started with the mountain of administrative stuff he had to address as the (founding) Director of the Rotman. He taught me to fruitfully collaborate with many different groups while keeping my goals clear, to empirically chase mysterious cognitive constructs such as inhibition, criterion-setting or monitoring, the nuts and bolts of grantsmanship, to review others’ work by raising even the most serious concerns through constructive elegance, without the needlessly frantic and harsh criticism so typical of a young post-doc as I was. He coached me on how to endure working hard but without forgetting to take well-deserved, regenerative breaks from time to time, like the unforgettable weekend we had at his beloved cottage, a play at the Four Season Centre, my first Canadian Football match or the delightful picnic by the Ontario Lake together with his special lab members, or even a sparkling discussion about the ROBBIA model in front of a good beer at the pub. He was clearly a respected boss, for me and for many others, but he never forgot, not even for a single moment, the “human” side. For instance, once he knew I was going to be alone (and likely lonely) during a Christmas eve. He did not hesitate to invite me to join him, his daughter and her partner, for a Ukrainian dinner at his place. I will never forget that fantastic evening, not just because we had a shot of vodka, well… a shot before every course (and there were 12 delicious dishes!) but, above all, because of the attention to the details that count that he demonstrated with that invitation. I will conclude this note with one last anecdote, the same story I reminded him in what turned out to be our last email exchange around mid-July 2019. Since he was attending a conference in Sicily in June 2011, I invited him and Lourenza over for lunch at my parents’ home. Although it was hard to schedule and organize that lunch (my village was located more than two hours away from the conference venue, and he had to be back that same afternoon), he accepted because he was happy to eventually get to know my family. During that memorable lunch, he made my mother very happy and proud by truthfully appreciating her dishes, trying to overcome his little knowledge of Italian with an intriguing Italian-like non-verbal gesticulation. After many years from that event, I received an email out of the blue, in which Don was comparing my mom’s food with that of a new Italian restaurant he had recently discovered in Toronto, concluding that, despite both were of high quality, the former was clearly more luscious. This, among many other anecdotes that populate my mind, proves once again the valuable person he was, being able to attract the best scientists and creating a stellar Neuroscience center out of nowhere, on one side, as well as giving credit to a housewife in the meanders of Trinacria, on the other side. Bye Strong Lion! We’ll miss you.