In May of 1978, several hundred of the friends, colleagues and former students of Professor Herbert C. Brown gathered on the campus of Purdue University to note his formal retirement, to honor him for his past contributions to chemistry and to wish him continued success in research. It was a time of reunion and recollection, a time for looking back and giving recognition to a lifetime of accomplishment. There was the ceremony of a banquet, presided over with inimitable wit by Professor Derek Davenport, and the dedication of the Herbert C. Brown Archives, with addresses by Dr. Alfred Bader, of...