It hurts my heart to think I will never run into Michael at a conference again and have one of those deep conversations that leave you with much food for thought and the satisfaction of having spoken with such a pleasant companion. I first heard of Michael as one of the authors of the XML spec. Some time in the early 2000s I remember looking at some DTD processing code he had written and thinking “Damn, this guy is smart.” I didn’t actually meet him until much later and was surprised to find that such a powerful intellect was manifested in such a pleasant, generous person. I’ve said for years that whereas most of us can think in sentences at best, Michael could think in perfectly formed paragraphs. It was this power, married to his wit and generous spirit, that made him such a wonderful repeat Balisage keynote speaker. He could synthesize the whole conference into a talk that was at once insightful, thoughtful, and kind. A remarkable achievement that he pulled off year after year without visible effort. Michael was a huge influence on many of us and I hope we can carry on his legacy.