ABSTRACT
It is common in collections of this type to recall how the honoree helped in shaping one’s career or intellectual development, and generally provided some beneficium (one of the honoree’s favorite words) in the course of academic interchange. But in my case, the situation is rather different and quite rare. My earliest memories of our honoree go back almost forty years to when he held my hand in the station in Angoulême as my family waited for the train to go back to Poitiers. Over the intervening years, the honoree taught me how to skip so that I could pass kindergarten, took me and my younger brother on nature walks, coached my soccer team, drove me to swim meets, and helped me with my Latin homework. Long before I knew anything about Bernie the scholar, I just knew him as my dad. My intellectual debts to him are incalculable, but far more important has been the forty odd years of a father’s love. So, this one is for you Dad.
