Remembering Len Jossem

摘要

It is hard to accept that Len Jossem is no longer with us.For me it is especially painful because we had knowneach other for so long. I last met him on the evening ofSaturday, July 25, 2009, just before the beginning of the2009 AAPT Summer Meeting in Ann Arbor, MI. It wasonly the briefest of encounters. I had almost finished mydinner at the Campus Inn when I saw Len enter the otherside of the dining room. He did not see me, but I calledout a greeting to him and we exchanged a few words;he looked quite unwell, but I did not make much of it,and since he had someone with him I did not go to histable to talk further. His last words to me were "See youaround," and I expected that to happen the next morningbecause I knew that Len made a ritual of sitting in at theExecutive Board meetings. That was something I myselfalmost never did, but planned to do this year in order tocatch up with AAPT affairs after missing several nationalmeetings. The alarm bells went off when Len failed toappear. We learned the next day that Len had gone home,and then, only a few days later, that he had passed away. It was an enormous loss to AAPT, but at least Len himselfwas spared a transition into a possibly lengthy period ofillness and declining powers.