Dear Bill, dear all, this is terribly sad news. I feared the worst when Bob did not show up at Cambridge for CT2014, but hoped that it was just a wrong feeling. The strongest and happiest link I had with Bob was in the organization of two major conferences at Como and Genova: in both occasions the many, strangely difficult tasks which we had to confront always appeared easier than they were because of his willingness to make things work and of his amazing sense of humour. My image of Bob is forever connected to cartesian bicategories (I, II, III,...). They constitute landmarks in the research in mathematics, and I am certain they will prove fundamental in the philosophy of the subject in the decades to come. It is the saddest of thoughts that I shall not discuss it with him any more. At this terrible moment my heart is with Nicoletta and Sofia. Pino [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]