Some will say he was a wonderful programmer, who did coding sorcery to get games like Pokemon Gold and Silver onto cartridges that had no business fitting.
Some will say he was a jovial personable man who humanized the often fitful, draconian realm of the video game boardroom.
But I will remember him as the man who ate big pay cuts to keep his staff employed and occupied where other CEOs would throw their people under buses or flee and have someone else desperate to appease shareholders do it instead.
And for that, he will be missed deeply.
Great post. Even though I've been vocal in the past about where he's lead Nintendo during the last couple of years, I've always believed he was still an awesome person. You'd be hard pressed to find a more charming dude in the video game industry. What kind of CEO of a multi-billion dollar company is doing stuff like this:

Or Nintendo Directs? Iwata Asks? And as you mentioned, cutting his pay in half after his company has a bad year?
He seemed like a really great, genuine guy.