Got word that one of my old committee members at UT, Harvey Cragon, had passed away recently (obit).  He was a tough old guy who built some of Texas Instruments supercomputers like the Advanced Scientific Computer back in the 1960s and 1970s.  It was a pleasure to know and work under someone with his background and understanding of computer architecture.  In particular, he made some recommendations for my work that I disagreed with and tried to ignore.  He eventually insisted I pursure some of these ideas, and it ended up being one of the strongest pieces of what I did (and yes, I did tell him he was right and I was wrong, but of course, he already knew that).