Obituaries of colleagues are always sad, but they become shocking when they are for friends of exactly one's own age. Marek was a friend, not really a collaborator, of mine. I first met him at the Cambridge CT conference in 1986, when we were each finishing our PhD theses. He helped organise three of my four visits to Poland and was an excellent host to me and my partner. On one visit he helped to return my spectacles to me in London, after I had dropped them in a town in the far NE of the country! My first visit was in 1993, not long after the fall of Communism. Warsaw had been flattened by the Nazis and was now dominated by the Palace of Culture and Science, a "gift" from Joseph Stalin. It was said that the best thing about being in it was that then you could no longer see the Palace of Culture. By my second visit, in 2013, numerous "capitalist" skyscrapers had sprouted up in central Warsaw, so I asked Marek what he thought of them. He replied, "which do you prefer, Typhoid, or Cholera?" It is that dry sense of humour that I will always remember. After the elections in November I asked him what he thought and he gave a typically cynical response. I was hoping to get a more detailed opinion once Donald Tusk had finally got his feet under the prime minister's desk. Now I will not hear what Marek thought. I know his family has deep roots in Warsaw and his uncle died in the Uprising against the Nazis (watched by the Red Army from across the river). Poland is now restoring Democracy for the fourth time. I am very sorry that my friend Marek will not get to see that flourish. My commiserations to his partner Justyna, his two sons, his family and his colleagues. Sorry for he late reply: I was on holiday in S America. Paul Taylor. ---------- You're receiving this message because you're a member of the Categories mailing list group from Macquarie University. Leave group: https://outlook.office365.com/owa/categories@mq.edu.au/groupsubscription.ashx?source=EscalatedMessage&action=leave&GuestId=6bf90c14-94d1-45b7-a0b5-9dd447734d27