To David Gottlieb,
The generations of men and women is reckoned around 30 years.
The generations of scholars is reckoned at much less.
We mathematicians love to keep track of our professional genealogies;
we speak of our students, our grand students, etc.,
and, backwards in time, we speak of the great names from whom we ourselves are descended.
I like to think that David and I are related professionally in the following way:
from myself to Phil Rabinowitz to Saul Abarbanel, to David.
Though in the strict sense of thesis adviser to advisee,
this is not the case, allow me to say, that in a generalized sense,
David is my great-grand student.
All of us are happy and proud when our children are honored.
I feel pride that I have known David now for many years and
I am sure that all of us here today are proud and are honored
by our association with him.
In David we have a man of brilliance,
and as we can plainly see,
a man who is a paradigm of great persistence and fortitude.
We wish him and his family joy of the occasion
and we take from this occasion the certainty
that he will go forward with
strength and accomplishment.
-- Phil Davis
