Or feared! Respected and feared.
(See my response to the sibling comment on koolba for the discussion if you wondering what I am talking about)
Driving out fear (of colleagues, of management, etc) was one of his key principles in creating quality for the organization.
http://www.quality-assurance-solutions.com/Deming-Point-8.ht...
I agree with you, in the sense of "I respect him, he knows a lot, he's good at what he does, he's kind and faithful and so on".
And also fear. Some fear. Enough to make people think twice when they're planning on backstabbing you, pulling you from the cliff, etc.