Ken Rodgers, longtime managing editor of Kyoto Journal, passed away on Nov. 4. He was 72 years old.

Rodgers was one of the Kyoto foreign community¡¯s leading lights, respected for his kindness, patience and a positive outlook that inspired an eclectic range of writers, photographers and artists who contributed to the award-winning, all-volunteer magazine.

Born Kenneth Charles Wade Rodgers on May 18, 1952 on the Australian island of Tasmania, he studied printmaking and did a variety of jobs in his native country, and then South Africa, before coming to Japan. Rodgers arrived in Kyoto in August 1982, originally on a working holiday visa, and made a home and community here over the next four decades.