We noted that the Feb 3 New York Times description of Sammy Eilenberg's life contained notable ommissions, and in particular seriously under-represents the glorious achievements of the Columbia University Math Dept. Therefore we are sending the following letter to the Times, hoping that they'll print it. Editor: We were moved by your obituary of Professor Samuel Eilenberg, the eminent Columbia University mathematician. Our lives, like those of his many other students and colleagues around the world, were profoundly influenced by his 'insistence on getting to the bottom of things'. It is widely known in the mathematical community that Professor Eilenberg's most influential long-term collaboration was with the senior US mathematician Saunders Mac Lane, of the University of Chicago. Their joint discovery in 1945 of the theory of transformations between mathematical categories provided the tools without which Sammy's important collaborations with Steenrod and Cartan, which you mentioned, would not have been possible. That joint work laid also the basis for Sammy's pioneering work in theoretical computer science and for a great many continuing developments in geometry, algebra, and the foundations of mathematics. In particular, the Eilenberg-Mac Lane theory of categories was indispensable to the 1960 development, by the French mathematician Alexander Grothendieck, of the powerful form of algebraic geometry which was an ingredient in several recent advances in number theory, including Wiles' work on the Fermat theorem. Sincerely, Professor F. W. Lawvere, SUNY Buffalo Professor P.J. Freyd, University of Pennsylvania