Richard Katona has sadly passed away.

He was a lovely, sincere, scholarly, quietly spoken and thoughtful man with Deptford running through his veins. I first got to know him when I shipped up at Goldsmiths in 2012. He was an active member of the planning group for a community conference we held. He led one of the workshops as well on the role of theatre and the community. He was a friend from then onwards. As a Goldsmiths alumni he was always supporting me with some of the challenges I faced at Goldsmiths particularly when they queried my role with V4D saying that if I didn’t withdraw I might not get a new contract. Richard bless him pinged off a letter/email to the Warden/VC at Goldsmiths in support of my continuing the link with V4D. It worked. He similarly supported the V4D ‘pop-up’ shop we held banging off emails to Goldsmiths arguing we should get the shop, which we did, at no cost. He had contributed to the book that Andy Turner, Keith Popple and myself are putting together along with members of V4D and others who have contributed to V4D. We will put in a special mention in the book of his role and contribution to the V4D campaign. His generosity knew no bounds. What I can say is that he was a ‘behind the scenes’ massive supporter of the recent V4D Crowd Justice campaign. He will be hugely missed not only by us and the V4D campaign but DNA and others he gave support to. A true community activist. It was good to know him and his memory will always be there. Thank you Richard.

Dr Roger Green