In Memory of Earl Jay Taft (1931–2021) Uma N. Iyer, Susan Montgomery, Siu-Hung Ng, and David Radford Uma N. Iyer My frst correspondence with Professor Earl J. Taft was when I was a post-doctoral visitor at the Harish-Chandra Research Institute, India, in 1999. I do not remember what exactly we corresponded about, but I do remember the thrill of receiving an answer from him for a question I had within a day. That generosity of a much renowned math- ematician towards a post-doc he had never met is what I remember him the most for. Years later, in 2006, I met him at the City University of New York (CUNY). Professor Taft regularly participated in several seminars at CUNY. In collaborative works with A. Lauve and S. Rodriguez-Romo, he constructed left Hopf algebras that are not Hopf algebras modeled after   (). Our joint work [2] was a search for a left-Hopf algebra which is not a Hopf algebra containing   ( 2 ). While we were unsuccessful in identifying such an algebra, we were able to look at one non-example closely. Together with Professor Jonathan D.H. Smith, we were able to study the connections between one-sided Hopf algebras and one- sided quantum quasigroups. Working with Professor Taft never seemed like work. He talked about various things: about his childhood in New York City, about his travels all around the world, about his amazing wife, Hessy Levinsons Taft, and her family. He Communicated by Notices Associate Editor Steven Sam. For permission to reprint this article, please contact: reprint-permission@ams.org. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1090/noti2720 Uma N. Iyer is a professor of mathematics at Bronx Community College-CUNY. Her email address is uma.iyer@bcc.cuny.edu. could read and speak several languages fuently. He could discuss opera and literature as comfortably as he could dis- cuss mathematics. At the risk of repeating myself, I am grateful for his kind- ness and generosity. What a privilege it has been to have worked with him, to have had interacted with him and his wife. My deepest condolences to his family. Om Shanti. Uma N. Iyer Susan Montgomery I frst met Earl in the fall of 1971, when I visited Rutgers. I also met his wife Hessy and family, who were very welcom- ing. Of course, Earl suggested that I should look at Hopf algebras. At the time I was not interested; if an algebra had a multiplication, why did it need a comultiplication? Over the years, I would run into Earl at meetings, and again he would suggest I should look at Hopf algebras. In 1981, I started working with Miriam Cohen on the duality between group actions on rings and rings graded Susan Montgomery is a professor of mathematics at the University of Southern California. Her email address is smontgom@usc.edu. JUNE/JULY 2023 NOTICES OF THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY 939