Winship Herr Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland Corresponding author: winship.herrgmail.com

Even before Genes & Development, Terri Grodzicker and I had developed a special relationship—we were both smokers. When I was promoted to the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory staff in 1984, I inherited the departing Steve Hughes’ desk in the office he had shared with Terri. As such, during office gossiping sessions, our office would fill with a thick haze of smoke. Its seriousness was vividly brought to our attention one day when Yasha Gluzman—our jovial, burly colleague—opened our door to talk to us and could barely see us, or us him, through the dense smoke. It was but one of the embarrassments that led us, thankfully, to become lifelong exsmokers.

Our relationships with G&D developed separately before converging for over two decades. My relationship with the journal began in 1986 as I was drawn to the excitement of a new hometown journal doing battle with the Goliath journal Cell. I was a typical CSHL investigator—a young Turk—still searching to make his mark against established leaders. I thus identified with the journal. I also enjoyed talking to Steve Prentis, the journal's founding editor, about his new baby. I was honored that he selected me to review a paper for its first issue in 1987. Later that year, I published my first of what would be 16 G&D publications.

Like so many at CSHL, I was shocked when I learned that Steve had died in a skidding car accident the last Saturday of February 1987; I remember well that night's icy roads. The untimely death made many of us at CSHL want to ensure the success of the journal in Steve's memory. The person most impacted by Steve's disappearance, as far as the journal was concerned, was Mike Mathews who, being the sole CSHL member of the G&D Editorial Board, …