BLACK SHEEP:
The deceased Witness, in all probability, might have been one of those who sold all they had before 1975 so they could pioneer until the End.
It’s also possible that the speaker was trying to make a ‘point’ to the so-called ‘weak’🙄. If I were sitting there and knew the whole story, the only ‘point’ I would understand is that I’d never repeat the guy’s mistake…
When the end didn’t come this person had to start all over again and was probably bitter. They didn’t leave the religion for whatever reason (maybe family in)? The speaker either knew the deceased personally or knew about him and figured many people present knew the story so he slipped in his favorable remarks. Whatever.
The fact is: there are many like the deceased JW…including those younger ones who repeated the same mistakes in recent years!..This was because the 1975 failure was swept under the rug and these embarrassing stories never told so yet more naive people did similar foolish things!