Michael Pyryt was a fine man; he was a good friend of mine. I met him first in 1979 at the NAGC in Baltimore. I was recently separated from my husband, and he sat with me at the bar while I cried in my beer (wine), reading him drunken poems from a trip to the National Museum in which every painting reminded me of some time with my about-to-be-ex. His tenderness and consideration and care and listening continued throughout the years.

We met, thereafter, at every other NAGC, AERA, ECHA, and Wallace, to have dinner, to talk, and to share. My memories of Michael range from Rhodes, Greece, at ECHA, to a day trip to Lake Louise near Banff a couple of years ago, after the Janneke Frank dissertation defense, for which he had invited me to be the external reviewer.

I loved him as a comrade. My good, dear friend, God take you.

Jane Piirto