Dear Ayala,

If you remember, we met during the early 1970s. I was then on the faculty of the Department of Statistics at Tel-Aviv University, but because all of my colleagues wondered why I never had a second job, I began to teach at the Technion for my "chaltura".

Ruth Heller, who is visiting Philadelphia this year, told me you were retiring and that this on-line memory book was being created to show our appreciation for your impact on statistics in Israel and for the statistical community there. I am sorry that I will not be there in person to share in this moment of remembrances, but I hope that these few words can bring back pleasant memories.

I always looked forward each week to the day I travelled to the Technion and had a chance to talk to you about statistics, data analysis, and your experiences at Bell Labs. I found our once-a-week conversations truly enlightening and thoroughly enjoyable. Somewhat later, you sent me a paper related to my earlier work on intervention analysis in time series. I'm sorry we never kept more in touch.

It's strange to hear that you will be retiring. However, I'm glad that you will remain active in research and in consulting and not just fade into the background, which I'm sure would be so out of character for you.

I'm really happy that through the Internet I can be a part of this celebration. In this way, I can express my heartfelt appreciation to you for all the positive interaction we had while I was in Israel. I'm planning on visiting Israel again soon with my family and I hope we can reconnect then.

Best wishes for an absolutely wonderful retirement,
Alan