It is with terrible sadness that I learned of Bob’s passing. I know of Bob’s work since the mid-1990s, but Bob and I only met for the first time when he came to Ottawa for a conference in September 2002 on central banking and, since then, we have always shown the utmost of respect and professional solidarity. He visited us again in Ottawa in May of 2011 for a conference in monetary economics, and again we saw each other at the CIRANO conference in September of 2011. But we met regularly, especially at the annual ASSA meetings. Indeed, just recently we were together at another successful CIRANO conference in Montreal that he and Thierry Warin organized, and, despite his heavy duties on the recruitment committee of his department, I was able to convince Bob to be a discussant in a session that I was chairing at the AFEE 2015 meetings in Boston at the beginning of January. Moreover we had lunch together just before this AFEE session at the Boston Marriot and, despite our shared cynicism about important aspects of the  economics profession, particularly the mainstream’s incapacity to analyze and explain the real world, Bob was just filled with a guarded optimism about some of the changes going on since the financial crisis. I have only wonderful memories of him that will certainly live on of this intellectually towering figure with a kind heart and infectious smile who brightened our lives. It is so devastating to all of us who knew him; but I wish to assure you that he will live on deep in our hearts.

Mario Seccareccia, Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada