Wade, I am sorry for the loss of your friend, John.
I have John Pearse armrests on several of my guitars, and a few get strung with JP strings.I still laugh each time I pick up a package of "Gorilla Snot" that I keep in one of my guitar cases!
To me, he was just a big bear of a man, characterized on his string packaging, who made some pretty neat products. For others, it seems he was a big man all around.
RIP