Memories
This page is dedicated to preserving and celebrating the enduring legacy of James Rapley. Here, we invite you to share your treasured stories, anecdotes, and reflections about James with us via the Contact Us page.
It is important to us to keep his vibrant spirit and cherished moments alive. Your stories contribute to a tapestry of memories, ensuring that James's legacy continues to inspire and resonate with all who knew him. Let's join together in honouring his life by sharing the experiences that made him so deeply cherished and unforgettable.
KAREN SCOTT'S MEMORIES, James' Girlfriend
In the time we had together, James and I were able to do and experience so much. As James always said, we have been so lucky. Although we spent a fair amount of time apart due to work, we were always able to keep in touch and tell each other everything. And when we were together we made up for lost time by sharing as many experiences and adventures as we could. The proof of this was when James would always joke about how much healthier his bank account was when I wasn’t around :)
However, it was almost a miracle that we got together at all in the first place. We met back in 2008 where we were both working on the same large IT project but for different consulting companies. As soon as we met we had eyes for each other, but both were too awkward to know if the other was interested. So although there was a lot of flirting, particularly on my behalf, with many a fake reason to go up to his floor of the building, it took him over 6 months to ask me out and it was only then because I was very unsubtly telling him it was my last week on the project. Even after he asked me out there had been miscommunication and he thought I’d politely let him down. Only when I emailed and followed up about the date did it finally ring true to him – “She really does like me!”
When describing my beloved James, so many things come to mind but the words that persist, the ones that always come back to me are – Caring, Positive, Passionate, Intelligent and Witty.
CARING Caring is what everyone wants from their partner and in my 5 years with James, I was lucky to have someone who showed me so much love and adoration. As someone who considered himself a shy person, James never was with me and I loved feeling so special. For me as someone who is considered by most an outgoing person, I am not someone who loves easily and James showed me how to truly love someone with my whole heart because this is how he loved me. I remember in the early days of our relationship an example of when I realised just how much he cared. I was over at his house one day and he asked if I wanted a drink. I said yes I'll have whatever and he pulled out a bottle of Sav Blanc. This doesn't seem like much to most people, but James doesn't drink wine. He had taken note of the wine I always ordered when we were out and bought me a bottle. He said to me "I got this for you so you can have it when you're at my house". He always did those small things for me like buying me flowers and getting me my favourite cheese, small things that made me love him all the more. Having the last 3 and a half months living in Chicago together confirmed the love we had for each other and we always knew the next step in our journey would be marriage and everything beyond it. POSITIVE James was always so positive and when I was complaining about not having enough leave in the USA to do all the trips, we wanted to do he would look at me and say – “Karen, remember how lucky we have been, not many people our age has been able to experience what we’ve done. Our parents would never have dreamed at our age about going to all the places that we’ve been.” Ever the optimist he could look at any circumstance in a positive light. Even, in Chicago when it was negative 13 degrees and snowing outside James was always saying how he still enjoyed having to put all our jackets, gloves, beanies and scarves on… “It’s such a novelty” he’d say! He loved the snow and was still even riding his bike in shorts until mid-December! He was also a Melbourne Demons supporter and after last year, a season that had many of their own supporters booing the players off the field, James thought with the new coach Paul Roos recently assigned, that 2014 was going to be their year. Even when I turned to him cheekily during the season, and said did you hear the Hawks (the team I support) won by 91 points? He replied “Only 91? That’s great news, less than 100 points. Go the Dees!” He saw no point, no advantage to complaining. Taking enjoyment out of every situation was the way James chose to live his life. PASSIONATE Together, we did so many fun, exciting, interesting and adventurous things, life was never boring with James around. Our passion for travel was something we shared from the beginning and James’s want to travel off the beaten track really rubbed off on me. He always said, “We can go to places like Europe when we’re old and married with kids. Let’s do the exciting trips now when we’re young”. We did a lot of travel together within Australia, even driving and camping across the Nullabor from Melbourne to Perth (a pretty ambitious first holiday together for most people!). We also managed to get to New Zealand and recently went on a trip to Cuba which James described it as not only off the beaten track but not close to any track at all! Thanks to James, our holidays were never relaxing. Never one to sit still for long, if we were at a beach James would be renting kayaks, snorkelling and wanting to do some hiking too! His enthusiasm was so contagious it always ended up making me want to ditch the sunbaking and go on an adventure with him instead. James had an insatiable appetite for learning new things and once he set his mind to something, he would put all his effort towards being the best he could be. In the time I knew him he picked up more new hobbies than most people do in their lifetime! They included down-hill mountain bike riding, CrossFit, long-distance road bike riding, photography, scuba diving, footy, pilates, yoga, golf, roast pork chef extraordinaire and he even came to a salsa dance class with me on more than one occasion! This was on top of the basketball he already did twice a week. As you can see James was never bored! He was even secretly working on a comedy routine as he always thought he’d have made a pretty good stand-up comic, and with his wit and dry humour, we all know he would have been! He never limited himself and was always working towards a new goal. INTELLIGENT/WITTY James was also the smartest person I know. If any of you have ever engaged in a debate with James you would have been struck with his sheer intelligence and his incredible way of viewing the world around him. His sense of reason, supported by a plethora of research and an almost photographic memory made for a pretty formidable opponent. Having witnessed many of these debates, I asked him recently if he had ever had his mind changed due to any of his often robust and lengthy discussions with others. He replied, “not often, but I am always open to it. I am not stubborn and arrogant enough to think my views are always the right ones, when someone can convince me otherwise, I will take those views on board”. He was so wise, but still so open-minded and always willing to learn. Because of James’s desire and thirst for knowledge, I also wanted to understand more about the world and learn new things. James showed me that knowledge helps makes you a better person, someone who can contribute back to society more meaningfully because of it. James was so passionate about social impact and making a difference. He wanted to make the world a better place and through all his care, positivity, passion, intelligence and wit he has done that. Although taken from us far too early, he has made a huge and lasting contribution to this world. James lived his life to the fullest through a set of principles and advice that he so often shared with me over the years. It is these that have helped, and continue to help me get through this difficult time and will always be my reference point to helping me become the person he knew I could be. I want to share these wise words with all of you here today. This is, as he would say, James’ advice for a happier Karen: 1. You are perfect as you are – remember that you are smart, strong, capable and independent. 2. Don’t get stressed over the little things; keep everything in perspective. 3. Be positive – no whinging is allowed. 4. Do exercise, not to lose weight but to be healthy and happy. 5. Don’t be bitchy. 6. Control your hangry “angry when hungry” vibes. 7. Remember how lucky you are. 8. Do what is best for you. 9. Live in the moment; plan – but only for those things that you can control not the many unknowns and assumptions. 10. Set goals and work towards them. CONCLUSION James, you are the best person I know, and you have meant the world to me. I will be forever grateful for our time together and the great influence you had on my life. I know that I am a better person for having known you, loved you and been loved by you. The legacy from such a successful life will continue through me, your family, and friends, and I promise to do something meaningful with my life and live every day to the fullest because I know this is what you would have wanted. I love you more than you will ever know and will always, always, love you and miss you forever.
CALUM SUTHERLAND MEMORIES, James' university friend
James was not an idle man. While I loved spending time with him, afterwards I often felt like I was wasting my life compared to what James was achieving. Despite working long hours, exercising like crazy, volunteering and socialising, he always managed to find time to remain well-read and was ready with interesting conversation based on something he’d recently read.
He once told me he thought of himself as “proactively lazy” because he would write computer programs to perform some of the more mundane tasks at work, giving him more time to read up on his own interests.
I told him that was ridiculous; he was simply being incredibly efficient. This typifies James’ attitude towards life. Cram as much in as humanly possible.
A GREAT FRIEND James was a true friend. Some of my favourite memories are sharing a beer at the pub while I would confide in him about whatever was going on in my life at the time. He would always listen carefully, then offer a completely different perspective that I would never had thought of. Of course the whole conversation would be interspersed with comedy, which always helped put things in perspective. Comedy was something James loved. We used to go to amateur open mic comedy nights, where he would often say “I can do better than that!” and he was right. A skilful storyteller, James would polish the delivery of his stories until they were perfectly timed. Although this did mean that those close to him often heard the story many times! It was always funny no matter how many times you heard it.
ALEXANDER JANNINK MEMORIES,
James' Redflex Traffic System Manager and Friend
I’m Alex, I worked closely with James for 3 years at Redflex Traffic Systems. Officially I was his manager, but a smart man like James just needed a strategic direction and then the intellectual responsibility and physical space to do his job well without any meddling from above.
We had mutual friends going to university, however the first time I met James was when he came to interview with Redflex in 2010. After the interview Matt Higgins rang me to say he’d heard we were interviewing James and that he was the most switched on guy he knew, to which I responded "you don't need to tell me that, he's an absolute gun!"
What I know he really loved after coming to Redflex from IBM was in being able to code and design rather than manage people and projects. He loved to tackle the big problems head on rather than work around them. His legacy is in two valuable pieces of software that he designed completely, the decision-making module for every enforcement camera Redflex makes and the automatic test system. The funny side to his work personality was that he would passionately elaborate his designs, but he could make the design so complex such that us mere intellectual mortals would be left staring at him blankly by the end of his presentations. This wasn’t made any easier by his usage of demonstrably superior vocabulary. James had a rare combination of intellect, a great personality & humour. We were sent a photograph that our radar speed camera had captured of two men holding hands running at 24km/h down the emergency lane in Abu Dhabi. James’ comment was that “surely two blokes running barefoot down the emergency lane is also illegal. Clearly the issue here is that pedestrians need to be registered and have number plates. Everybody here knows James loved to travel, and he went to Hong Kong, the UK, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the Philippines with Redflex. He would always come back with great stories, for example when he came back from the Philippines he related working at night at the side of the road and then hearing a “kcshrt” behind him, he turned around and saw a guy holding a tazer at him and James thought “oh shit I’m going to get tazed”. In fact the guy was trying to sell him the tazer, but that may have been hard to do amongst all the kids trying to beg money off him. Of course another great travel story is when James and Karen bailed our boss Adrian out of a jam in Cuba when his Australian money and credit cards didn’t work. James & Karen were going to Cuba at the same time, so I called James when he was transiting through to Cuba, and he then met up with Adrian in Cuba to help him out. However he and Karen then got worried that their money wouldn’t work there either, so they went around to all the cash exchanges in the airport in Mexico and pretty much cleaned them out of Canadian dollars and the other currencies accepted in Cuba. I think they had thousands of dollars in cash on them. James was fantastically capable and responsible, so naturally, everybody wanted to promote him to management positions, but he was happiest doing real work. For his final year at Redflex James managed a large R&D project for UK enforcement cameras, a job he did very well, but got frustrated with because he couldn’t control others to share his sense of urgency. However, despite being an articulate, athletic, confident genius there was one very large chink in the armour. He was absolutely terrible at board games. I never understood how somebody so accomplished could strategies so poorly at these games, he actually made the rest of us feel on par with him after we’d clean him up at games nights. When one of our colleagues got headhunted by Amazon through the online social media service LinkedIn, I stupidly said to James that if that’s the way the world is turning we’d better get on there. I set up an account and then James did as well, telling me that he’d pretty much copy pasted my one. Within a day he had invitations from multiple US companies who started to fight over him. The lure of going to a new job in the US was of course irresistible to a curious man like James. We discussed whether he should go to Groupon or Google and concluded that at Groupon he’d be on a useful interesting project with more control and potential to make a change, whereas at Google he’d probably be another cog in the wheel. That decision was reinforced when the Google recruiter sent him a nasty letter telling him how Groupon was a huge mistake, and that Google was better. What makes me saddest about James’ passing is the tremendous loss of potential. If there was one person I knew who was going to change the world for the better it was James. We haven’t just lost a friend, we’ve lost a truly inspirational man with big ideas and a big heart.
MEAGAN LEE'S MEMORIES, James' university friend
My story about James is also about the first time we met at Whitley College. It turned out that James was my neighbour for our first year at Whitley. After we had moved in, met briefly and had lunch, we all met on the front lawn and were told to pair up with someone of the opposite sex.
I quickly looked around and found that the tall, skinny guy who was now my neighbour was standing next to me. I turned to him and said 'you'll do', he was a bit surprised by this and did his classic eyebrow raising look and said 'gee thanks', with a grin on his face.
I can't remember much more about that day, but I had a good feeling from the start that James was a special person and that we'd become good mates over the next three years at Whitley.
OUR SHARED LOVE OF SPORTS James and I were elected sports reps together in our second years at Whitley. I'm pretty sure James didn't expect to get elected, given he wasn't the typical footy guy you might expect to be in that role. But people realised he was a great sportsman and more importantly, reliable and enthusiastic about sport and college in general. I really enjoyed going to meetings with him, organising events and helping each other out. I certainly increased my vocabulary that year, given I had to get James to explain the meaning of almost every second word he said to me! ALWAYS UP FOR A BATTLE OF THE MINDS Another story is from one of the last times I saw James. We were catching up at a pub for lunch with a few other mates. I remember sitting opposite James having a good old yarn and we ended up talking about exercise and boot camp type things. He was telling me about starting to try and do chin ups and how it is much harder for a male to do than a female. His reasoning was because he was so much bigger and thus had much more to lift. I don't think my argument that his arms were in proportion to his body and that males normally have much stronger muscles than females went down too well, I just think he wanted to make himself feel better that a chick in his class was a lot better at chin up than he was. So from now on every time I think about attempting some chin ups or see someone doing them, I think of James at that conversation. It was always good fun trying to get him a bit riled up over some random topic. ALWAYS UP FOR A LAUGH I also remembered this one yesterday, which always makes me smile. A group of us college mates were having a party at my place in Werribee one night, we were having a cocktail party and it was a great night. At the start of the night I remember standing in the kitchen with my housemates and we were talking with James, he looked down at the bench and asked if it was beef jerky that was in the plastic bag. Helen and I (who are both vets and were studying at the time) looked at each other and said yeah sure it is, did you want to try some. James and his constant hunger thought this was a great offering and gladly accepted, but on his first taste you could see he was wondering what kind of beef jerky it really was. We asked if he liked it, and being polite, said yeah it wasn't too bad. Helen and I then started to crack up as it wasn't actually beef jerky, but some liver treats that Helen had brought back from the vet hospital! Poor James, we felt a little bad, but the look on his face was worth it.
MICHELLE BOYLE'S MEMORIES, James' university friend
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While I stayed for three years, the rooms were often small, and in summer often sweltering! I obviously was whinging about this one time, and Jimmy being the all caring and all noticing man remembered. So along comes my birthday, and along comes a free standing fan to add to my room. So practical! So hilarious – who buys someone a fan for their birthday!? But lets be honest, this fan, like my friendship with James, kept on giving after my college days and was carried around from house to house, always whirling away and cooling the room. A VEST & OUR SHARED LOVE OF BIKE RIDING Secondly, the bike vest. I started riding to work when I came back to Melbourne in 2007/2008. I bought a bike with Kevin 07 stimulus money, and Jimmy as always was practical and concerned about safety. While others gave earrings, scarfs and wine, for my birthday that year he gifted a very practical bike vest – I can remember him telling me how great it was, as it wasn't too 'uncool' to just slip on over my work clothes for my trip home. His concern for my safety always touched me. A HAMMOCK & OUR SHARED LOVE OF TRAVEL Lastly, a hammock. I am truly lucky that Jimmy and Karen came and joined me and Aiden in San francisco this last year in 2013, for my 30th birthday. As we were all recent transplants to the USA, I was so so lucky to have them both join us to celebrate turning the big three zero. We had a lovely long weekend, visiting the Napa valley, and then on to Lake Tahoe. We had planned to go to Yosemite, but due to government shut down madness, had to have a plan B but had another reason to discuss the madness that is American politics. Like I started with, Jimmy was both a presence and presents man. His presence was more than a gift enough, however he also brought a present – a hammock to take hiking, which is a thing I do often. We tested this hammock out this weekend just gone, and cheered to dear Jimmy. For me, the memories of having Jimmy with me to celebrate my 30th were more than gift enough. I will treasure this time with him always, and will now also remember it every time I am sitting in my hiking hammock.
I am not really a present person, always requesting instead the presence of friends rather than gifts. Jimmy however was both a presence and presents person. Always there to celebrate in person and keeping great company at all events – but also coming along with a gift if seemingly necessary.
These gifts were always very 'Jimmy'. Those who knew him will know what this means; best summed up as practical and well thought out! For those who don't know I give three examples; a fan, a bike vest, and a hammock. All birthday gifts over the years.
A FAN & OUR SHARED LOVE OF UNI
Firstly, a fan. I knew Jimmy through Whitley college, and like Jimmy came from an awkward time in high school, where being smart wasn't that cool. Like Jimmy I found college to be an amazing experience, with so many fond memories of my time there.
STEVE CURNOW'S MEMORIES, James' best friend
How did James have enough energy for these feats you may ask? Well, he was sustained by a steady intake of snacks and pre-dinner meals, like the time he smashed down some Maccas on the way to a friend’s dinner party. A MORAL FRIEND James had a strong moral compass from an early age, values which were fostered by his parents, and reflected in some of his favourite movies, in particular the recent Batman trilogy. James’ appreciation for Batman was unsurprising given the latter’s status as a tireless purveyor of social justice, relying not on supernatural powers or an alien otherness, but on a powerful intellect, a deep resourcefulness and an unrelenting work ethic. James was a true friend. Whenever a big decision was to be made he could always be relied upon for helpful advice and he would always have some useful new perspective to contribute. When required he was quick to encourage, console or and always re-assuring, James would always take time to remind you of your strengths and what you are capable of achieving. Patient, reliable and loyal, James inspired his friends to get the most out of themselves and out of life. His was a life well lived. We will miss him greatly.
A STORYTELLER
James was an avid storyteller. I can’t remember how many times when out at a pub or a party, upon discovering someone who had yet to hear his latest story or anecdote, James would enthusiastically and selflessly launch into yet another retelling, regardless of the number of people within earshot had just been regaled with that exact same story not 5 minutes earlier.
James would fearlessly tackle any challenge, which at times led to some eye-brow raising feats such as eating a block of pool cue chalk, dressing up as Mrs. Claus for a Christmas in July dinner and a night out on the town and tackling a physics exam on about three hours of sleep after celebrating all night with students who had finished their exams.
SAMANTHA HIGGINS' MEMORIES, James' University friend
Jimmy- it was an honour to know him. This scholarship is a fitting way to honour him as a person and what he believed in.
Visiting Whitley recently I was reminded of a conversation where James used so many big words (he was worldly and smart beyond his years!), and I had to stop him for clarification. He then selflessly took the time to try and explain the conversation- not to be smart, but to help me learn and grow. I have many fond memories of him at Whitley College. Memories such as drinking cheap 'Proton' caffeine drinks to spur him through exams, or the many nights out.
Reflecting on my Whitley College experience I am glad to be reminded of how integral Whitley was in providing me so much support in my transition into adult life, and the with many great friends I made long the way. Jimmy was one of the best people I met at Whitley, and I'll be forever grateful for meeting him there, and all the memories we shared at College and beyond.
JOHN MARK NICKELS, James' Groupon Manager and Friend
A native of Melbourne who had moved to Chicago, to join us at Groupon, just six months earlier, James saw things through a particularly clear lens: every decision he made, his father said, was "tempered by his desire to achieve a greater social good."
James understood how fortunate he was and used his position to make "the planet the best possible place for humanity." James worked on the Automated Merchandising team, where he was “very humble about his intelligence".
He and his teammates were building Megamind, a widgeting system that will allow anyone in the company to submit ideas for widgets to keep the website compelling for customers. For James, this project was about creating an idea meritocracy and letting everyone get involved in the website.