In 1987, shortly after Tibetan areas opened up for tourists for the first time, André Alexander—just twenty-two years old—journeyed across the world for a backpacking trip that would change the direction of his life.

“One could easily get lost in the narrow winding alleyways framed by low whitewashed stone buildings,” he wrote on an early visit. “On each subsequent visit, houses had vanished—stone by stone, block by block, alley by alley.” As he fell in love with the old city of Lhasa, he grew all the more determined to learn about, document, and eventually restore its rich architectural heritage before it was too late.

Out of this passion, he cofounded Tibet Heritage Fund in 1996 with Portuguese artist Pimpim de Azevedo. Their mission: to preserve the architectural heritage in general and Tibetan heritage in particular and to improve the lives of people living in traditional and historic settlements through sustainable development.

Through the persistence, creativity, and dedication of Tibet Heritage Fund, André achieved what many of us thought impossible: he halted demolition of historic buildings and collaborated with the Lhasa City Cultural Relics Office to rehabilitate the eastern part of Lhasa’s central Barkor neighborhood. He wasn’t interested in official monuments; he was committed to rescuing and restoring places like Kartsog Lhakhang, sites meaningful to the legacy of the communities around them. And whatever the project, he was sure to enrich those communities by hiring and training local Tibetans to learn ancient building and craft techniques.

Over the past decade, we were delighted to collaborate with André on a number of projects and to watch his work grow from the seeds of dream into an international organization, with projects in Central Tibet, Kham, Amdo, Ladakh, and Mongolia. For its relief work after the Yülshul earthquake in 2010 and flash-flooding in Ladakh, Tibet Heritage Fund received a United Nations Best Practice Award, three UNESCO Heritage awards, and the Global Vision Award, and we know the organization will continue winning awards and doing important work in the very capable hands of Pimpim de Azevedo and Hirako Yutaka.

He was just forty-seven years old last year when we lost him to a heart attack. Besides being a preeminent authority on architecture, we remember him as a devoted comic-book reader, always dressed head-to-toe in white. In André’s obituary in the Telegraph, Robbie Barnett wrote that André “once even ‘borrowed’ a stamp from a police station to give himself a visa extension, earning himself a week in custody.” This, too, is how we’ll remember him: a man unstoppable in his vision to make a difference for Tibetan communities.

He will be truly missed.