I remember very clearly the day I met George Laties. He was sitting at his old wooden desk in Kinsey Hall. His office was a long narrow room and it seemed to take forever to get from the door to his desk. As I approached him, he looked at me over the top of his reading glasses. As a prospective graduate student, I couldnít help but feel a little nervous as I approached. Fortunately, his casual manner and friendly attitude quickly dispelled my apprehension. I thoroughly enjoyed our discussion about plant senescence and I decided very quickly that if I was accepted to UCLA for graduate studies, I wanted to join the Laties laboratory. Providentially, George subsequently agreed to be my mentor and I began working in his lab in the Fall of 1975.

Looking back on my time in Georgeís lab, I have many fond memories. What stands out most was the interesting collection of people that gravitated to his laboratory. George attracted a wide range of personalities and every one of them contributed in some way to my education. Sharing lab and office space with emeritus professors Jacob Biale, David Appleman and Sam Wildman was a unique and special experience. The Laties lab had a tradition of sitting down together twice a day and having a cup of tea for 10 minutes. The topics of discussion were wide ranging and we almost never talked about our ongoing experiments. The lab postdocs played an important role in educating students. During my time, Dennis Jung, David Day, Geoff Arron, Erich Warm and Sakis Theologis were role models and to this day I consider them friends. I am deeply grateful to George for creating this wonderful and nurturing environment.

On the day of the Mandeville Canyon fire (1978), the entire lab rushed up the hill to Georgeís house to load our cars with irreplaceable mementos of their life. He and Betsy had lost everything in a previous fire and knew from painful experience what was truly valuable. We watched the chaparral on the Santa Monica Mountains explode into flame from Georgeís deck and waited nervously to see if the winds would blow our way. George saw an opportunity for an impromptu lab party and proceed to transform himself from a nervous homeowner into a perfect host. He served us drinks and appetizers with his relaxed style that made everyone feel at home.

George was a unique and original individual. I feel very fortunate to have known him and will miss him dearly.

Rolf Christoffersen
Dept. of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
University of California, Santa Barbara