I was Stan's first Ph.D.-er (in 1971), wrote "the world's first Lexicase dissertation" under his guidance, and was also one of those who helped him survive the first class he taught at UH back in - was it Fall Term 1967?

As 8 years his senior and with lots of teaching experience, I could have been a threat to him, but we talked freely about what was going on in the class. His mind sometimes leaped great chasms which left many students still on the other side. With amazing graciousness, he said he was happy for me to ask questions in class when I thought he hadn't made something clear enough for others, who had less linguistics background than I. He managed to let the other students think I was particularly dense, so that none of their questions would seem stupid - with a few knowing smiles my way to show that he felt "our" plan was working. In retrospect, IÕm amazed at this when I compare him with other profs who couldn't care less whether the "slow" students were following their pontificating.

He did so much for me as I worked on the dissertation, Case in Japanese. Unfortunately, he was gone during the first summer as I started writing, and handed me over to another professor. When Stan returned, we both agreed I needed to start over - the other guy was always wondering where the transformations were!

Then after I had finished about 250 pages of my lexicase analysis of Japanese, he said, "Now you'll have to describe the model, or no one will understand what you've said." So he coached me through another 250 pages setting out my understanding of his vision of Lexicase, only gently pointing out where something I was writing didn't follow his "authorized version." As chairman of my committee, he managed to get the dissertation accepted!

At commencement, his introduction of his candidate (me) was typically laced with humor - the physical weight of the 550 pages was only exceeded by .... He never did admit that he was responsible for making me write that last half of it! In his closing remark, he was "especially pleased to announce that I'd been hired by our sister department, the East Asian Languages Department as Assistant Professor of Japanese."

I believe he felt that this UH appointment of his first Ph.D. in some way further validated his position within the Linguistics Department. Then, when I left Japanese and moved on to Univ. of Michigan Linguistics, he was doubly supportive. First statement [possibly a bit exaggerated]: "Now we've hit the big-time, the first UH Linguistics Dept graduate to really make it at UM Linguistics!" Second statement: "Glad you're out of THAT [adjectives deleted] Department" (noted in those days for its political infighting; Stan was already well acquainted with life in Asian contexts).

Lots of other thoughts come crowding in.

I've been in touch with Aleli since belatedly hearing about Stan's death. Perhaps later she will be reading this and can be encouraged by so many of my good memories that include Stan and her.

There was the time I was writing the dissertation, and they helped me save money. They offered to let me condominium-sit while they were in Asia somewhere. But they arrived back one day early to find my research stuff spread out everywhere. Stan was consistently gracious in his note announcing their return, just to say that they'd forgotten about the international dateline. (They could see it would take me a bit of time to move me and my research elsewhere and didn't want to rush me.) So they had rented a room elsewhere until tomorrow!

We often laughed about tuna sashimi with them. My wife and I bought pounds of fresh tuna as our wedding gift to them, and together we got up early to slice and arrange a huge Japanese-style platter of fresh tuna sashimi for their wedding reception. The tuna was on time for the reception, but we arrived too late for the ceremony!

One main regret is that since 1980 we only rarely were able on our way to/from China to pass through Honolulu when Stan was in town. But it has helped me now to relive some wonderful times as I've sorted through memories to share a few with others who have known Stan in his later years better than we did.

I'm (again) back to teaching in China after 4 1/2 years in Tibet. Stan was supportive but had warned me in 1997 that Tibetan wasn't an easy language to learn - one of the greatest understatements ever!

This time I am at Kunming University in Yunnan, China teaching English along with my wife Nina. She raised our 4 sons and me and studied more Japanese and some anthropology at UH while I was studying and teaching there. Stan would be pleased that we both continue to be involved with people whose languages are a few of the many he also studied - Japanese, Mandarin, and finally Lhasa Tibetan.