IT was notable that Roanne Dods trained as both a lawyer and a dancer. In her work and in person, she mixed analysis, hard work and rigour with joy, colour, and a creative yearning.

Those entwined qualities of clarity and creativity were perhaps key to her success in her rich career, which included being the founding director of the Jerwood Charitable Foundation, as well as taking important roles at PAL Labs, Small is Beautiful, the Festival of Ideas, the Dovecot Studios, Scottish Ballet, the Battersea Arts Centre, the DCMS, and more.

Roanne, who lived in and worked from Glasgow, was a good friend and also my cousin. She died last month. Her death is mourned by her friends and family. But beyond the painfully personal, I believe her death is a blow to the public and cultural life of Scotland and beyond. She will be a great loss to the world of the arts.

When a friend dies, sometimes it is good to look back at the times you laughed together. I remember us amiably disagreeing about the artistic merits of a song she loved, "Where Is the Love?", by Black Eyes Peas. It was played at her funeral.

Love was important to her; as a propeller of progress and interaction, not just as a comfort, concept or blurry emotion. She just didn’t say the word, or use the word, but acted it out: in work and in word, in the quotidian decision-making of organisations and companies and in her personal practice. This was because she loved change and ideas and, to use a bland word to cover a multitude of things, creativity.

She loved craft, not just the craft of making things but also of crafting groups of interested people so that more beautiful things could be made in turn.

There are a lot of online networks these days – on Facebook and so on – but few as effective as someone like Roanne telling you in person: "You must meet this person, they are awesome."

She was lawyerly, too, about confidentiality. She must have known nearly every mover and shaker in the arts in the UK but, while providing comment and context, she never gave this reporter a hint of a story.

My phone is full of texts to her: "What do you think of this? What’s happening here?" An apt but unrevealing emoji was the usual response.

Her denied future also denies the arts world her high levels of wisdom and expertise. And that is sorely required in both the public and private world of Scotland’s cultural organisations. I know she remained excited by the possibilities of Scotland and all that could mean, both politically and artistically.

In one of our last conversations she was intrigued by the idea of the Government’s new national cultural strategy whilst also questioning what that might or mighty not mean.

She created real and lasting friendships and nurtured hardy networks.

People like Roanne, who actively and deliberately bring other people together, are rare, whether working and inspiring on the big, public stages of life or in the small, intimate gatherings of friends and soon-to-be-friends.

Her family and friends miss her. But Scotland, and its future, will miss her too.