I am one of those who would not be if Michael had not been. And I do not know what it will be like to be without him. I just have no idea.

I started down a certain path in the early 1980s. I had wonderful colleagues at Brown, but in 1989 that I met someone who in their person communicated the intellectual depth and vitality of the explorations we were engaged in. I was riveted. Michael’s scope and creativity were so compelling, so amazing. Suddenly I knew this was my community, and, for me anyway, the best of all possible communities. Michael gave me my identity through the worlds that he anchored —TEI, ACH/ALLC (now DH), Extreme Markup (now Balisage), and through the various projects, paper collaborations, and adventures I was lucky to be part of. And he was always the august, and sometimes severe, critical reader in the back of my mind.

One could go on and on with examples of Michael’s erudition, depth, and brilliance, the way he blended mastery of so many abstruse academic fields to illuminate and contextualize subtle technical issues in data processing standards, or his ability to identify yet one more overlooked (but critical) distinction, or his readiness to analyze (or is it devastate?) popular intellectual confusions and delusions. But that will have to come later. As will an account of how much the world owes him for the technologies, organizations, and practices we take for granted today. And how hard, how very, very hard, he worked for all of us.

Instead I will recall here, as others have, Michael’s incredibly welcoming nature. His intellect was intimidating, but he was not. He was always there for us, smiling, laughing, glad to see us, and then, later, listening so patiently and carefully. I often felt “Why is he listening to me? What am I providing that is comparable to what I am getting?”) But he was interested in each of us, interested in what we had to say, interested in what we thought, what we experienced. He was eager to talk and listen to the youngest greenest person, the student, the newest participant in at the TEI, DH, or Balisage, or to any stranger anywhere. He was always polite, deferential, helpful, to everyone. There was never any sign of self-regard or self-interest. Michael was always smiling, always laughing, always reaching out his hand to welcome you.

I cannot understand a future without him.