Only today I learned from the newsletter of MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning, which I receive regularly, that Bill Mitchell, a former dean I remember well, died in June this year. I was quite stunned. He was dean from 1992, two years after my departure from the Architecture Department, till 2003, the year I left the University of Reading for good. He was sixty-five when he died after a long battle with cancer. Now, why was I stunned? After all these years, I still count myself among youngsters. The same holds for all the people about my age, of course. Is there a point at which I will start counting myself among, well, the oldsters? I very much doubt it. There can be no such point, as a matter of fact. That is to say, I will forever be stunned when people my age meet their end. Even after a long battle with cancer.