The first time I met Michael was at a Digital Humanities conference in the early 2000s. Well, maybe it was the second time ... see below.

Michael gave a keynote about overlap in markup and the OHCO hypothesis. And then, during his talk, he suddenly referred to my poster, which he had seen only a few hours earlier.

That says nothing about my poster, but about Michael. He was always curious and open to new ideas, no matter where they came from. What mattered to him was not academic or other kind of success, but passion for a topic, freedom of thought, mutual respect, and the opportunity to create and build bridges to new perspectives.

Michael was eager to learn. Markup languages were his wonderland; but he also dived deep into the rabbit holes of e.g. literature, linguistics, philosophy and (web) technology. His depth and breadth of knowledge was overwhelming for experts in many fields.

His way of working was truly inspiring. Michael was precise in what he did, and he kept going with dedication until he was satisfied with the result. He was willing to argue for his point of view, but also believed in the art of consensus building. Even today, he is a role model for me on how to approach work, especially in standardization or in industry.

Being a giant in knowledge and experience, Michael was approachable for anybody, even a student at a conference. He was a person with a warm and extremely funny character. And I will never forget his anecdotes about technology and so many other topics. Here is one of these.

A few years ago, I met Michael for the last time in my current town of living Potsdam. In preparation for the visit, he told me the following.

“On my first visit to Berlin, the mother of my host family showed me Peacock Island and said she would like to show me Potsdam, which was not far away but currently (1972) inaccessible to us. In 1976, a fellow American student reported that he had visited Potsdam by streetcar because he had heard so much about it, which almost gave the secretary of the 'Stanford Program in Berlin' a heart attack because he had left Berlin without permission, which was strictly forbidden to Americans and presumably others.”

Michel and I had a good laugh by realizing that we may have met before: In the early 70s, my family from time to time took me for a walk on Peacock Island.

Thank you for this anecdote, Michael, and for everything else. You will be missed.