Bill Lawvere

Dear colleagues, I am deeply affected by Bill Lawvere's departure. I met him rather late, at the Category Theory conference at UBC in 1997. I knew very little, not having been schooled in that area of mathematics. So I introduced myself to two new people whose works I had begun reading---Bill, and also Saunders Mac Lane. They were very welcoming to a newcomer. In fact, it felt like Bill was taking a new enthusiast under his wing, so to speak. He spent time with me during breaks and I will forever benefit from his time there and at later conferences and in correspondence, and from the contributions he made to mathematics. Very sincerely, Mike Healy [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]