Tom McEvilly was Editor of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America for 9 years - one of the longest tenures in recent BSSA history. Under his leadership the journal grew and prospered. Because Kathy Rowe in our office served as his Editorial Assistant, our small staff worked more closely with him than we do with most Editors. We only actually saw him when we were in the office on weekends. Generally, when we arrived on Monday morning we found what we called Editor Droppings. These consisted of piles of manuscripts and terse and frequently humorous sticky-notes like: Send Naughty Reviewer Letter or Lousy paper. Let's break it to him gently.

His irrepressible humor was usually a delight -- but not always. Combined with his high standards it could be wicked. One story illustrates: Presidents of SSA give a Presidential Address at the end of their term of office. Some presidents welcome the opportunity to address big issues in seismology. Others worry for the entire year leading up to the address. One worrier put a lot into his address; it was quite long. I was standing with him after the luncheon when Tom sauntered up and beamed "I liked your talk. The first 20 minutes of it anyway."

Tom was one of the first people I knew to embrace the Berkeley revolution in gourmet food and wine. When a salesman from the BSSA printer in Baltimore invited us to lunch, Tom insisted that we go to Chez Panisse. This was long before even most Californians had heard of it. Tom really seemed to enjoy the look on the salesman's face when he was served a plate with three very thin slices of the finest pancetta, a baby carrot and a perfect radish. He was even more delighted by the salesman's shock when he got the bill.

I will always remember the way that Tom loved a good story, especially one about his own or someone else's outrageous behavior. I'm sure that others remember even more of those stories than I do. Both Kathy and I will be traveling on the 22nd and neither of us can attend the memorial service. I'm really sorry that we won't be there to celebrate his remarkable life and share the outrageous stories that I'm sure will be told there. He was a force of nature and seismology will really miss him.