A WORD FROM JAN UTZON
"Thank you all for your warm and wonderful words and flowers extended towards Jorn Utzon on his death, celebrating his long and beautiful life among us.
Jorn lived a full life, all of the 90 years that he was given among us. He had a wonderful life for 66 years with my mother. He was a warm and inspiring father for us children, and he was a great and gifted architect.
I think back on my life with my father with great joy and love. To be allowed to spend so much time together with such a remarkable man, father and architect, has been a great privilege indeed.
He was the most positive person I’ve ever met. He never talked about things or people he did not like. Always only positively about what interested him. He hated gossip and slander. He often spoke with great enthusiasm about the heroes in his profession, about the many wonderful people in music and arts that he loved, about people with noble character, whatever their status in our society. He was the ever inquisitive person. Nothing escaped his keen eye. He observed the world around him with extraordinary clearness.
From all these sources of inspiration, be it the pyramids of Mexico, the temple compounds of China, the half-timbered farms of Denmark, the branch of a tree, the leaf on a flower, a stone from the beach, the pattern in the snow, the slant of the sunlight, from music, sculpture, paintings and the humanistic thinking by great philosophers, he created a world of his own, a legacy of great and modest buildings that are ours to enjoy, far beyond his lifetime.
At home he was forever the playful and inspiring father and husband. Time was never boring in his company. He always had something to tell. Something he had seen on his way through the forest, somebody he had met, an idea he was developing, forever drawing the rest of the family into his wonderful world of ideas and ideals.
He also had time to play. He and my mother took us sailing and skiing from a very early age. Whenever there was ice on the nearby lake, he was the first person to go skating. We travelled extensively and they supported us in all our interests, and gave us the most wonderful childhood imaginable.
When I talk to the many persons who have worked with him, be it architects or persons in other professions, I am struck by the positive recollection they have of their time with my father.
I see my father as a happy boy whose energy, zest for life and compassion for his fellow-man enriched the lives of everyone he was in touch with.
Apart from losing a husband and father, we have lost a great creative spirit. However, through his work, his ideas and ideals and his love for his family and his fellow man, he will live on in our minds and our hearts.
Lis, Lin, Kim and Jan Utzon and families."