Dr. Robert L. Jackson, Professor of Child Health at the Uni- versity of Missouri-Columbia, decided to retire from clinical practice in 1977 and the Department of Child Health planned a con- ference in his honor. The Thirteenth Annual MidweSt Conference on Endocrinology and Metabolism also was in the planning stages and scheduled for two days in the fall. It seemed appropriate to com- bine the two into an expanded three-day conference. In view of Dr. Jackson's international reputation in the study and care of children with diabetes mellitus, the conference topic was not dif- ficult to find....