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Many thanks to the following people for sending their memories and words of support. Click on the name of the person to read any memories that have been made public. To add your own memories about S.-Y. Kuroda, please email them to kuroda-memories@ling.ucsd.edu.

Just heard the very sad news about Yuki. Everything seemed so good when we met just a few weeks ago. I know how awful this must be for you. Would like to express my most sincere and heartfelt sympathy.

I just heard the terrible news about Yuki.  This is one of those times where words fail, but where one has nothing else to offer except for words.  This is also one of those occasions where all who knew Yuki -- and especially those of us who were his friends --  will inevitably feel pain personally: his death alters our world,  the world as we knew it for many years, and now we have to go on, as  best we can.

Yuki was not only an outstanding linguist, he was also an outstanding human being, and every one of us who knew him shares your grief, feels personally afflicted.   It is loss that cannot be repaired and changes the lives of every one of us.

Tom Bever told me the horrible news.   I am so sorry.   What a wonderful light in the world.   My heart goes to you and to the other members of your families.   

I don’t know if I ever told you this one, from Yuki before he left MIT – so 64? 65?   He asked me a riddle.

Q:          When can you tell the real color of a chameleon? 
A:          When it is on top of another chameleon.

Do you know the real no-foolin’ origin of Yuki’s immortal “in my diarect” quote?   La Jolla had two (as I recall) fabulous winter-flight conferences, in the Februaries (I believe) of 1968 and 1969.   Lotsa heavy-hitters were there – Paul Postal, Chuck Fillmore (I think), Terry, Jim, George, big contingent from UCLA, the usual suspects, paid for by the NSF or some other gravy source which Leonard Newmark, then chair, had managed to tickle appropriately. Tough audience.  Of course the talk got terrifically abstruse, don’t remember the issue, probably something at least as ephemeral as quantifier scope in dreams in presupposition-blocked contexts where possible-world entailments only would go through for deontic determiners. The front line. Into this intimidating fray steps Yuki, goes to the board to reply to someone, writes something, is probably attacked by one or another hearty, turns, says, almost inaudibly softly, Those Three Words, smiles Japanesely, into the roar of unbelieving laughter that swells up. No question about it – one of the Stainless Great Moments in Syntax.

I am so sorry to hear of Yuki's death.  What a terrible loss.  Yesterday Morris, Sylvain and I were talking about both of you. Morris spoke of Yuki's work on Yawelmani, a superb study that I often taught in my Introduction to Phonology graduate classes.  Morris said it was a punishment he had inflicted on Yuki because he didn't want to study anything but syntax.  Everyone should produce such incredible work as "punishment." Please accept my deepest sympathies.

I was really very saddened to hear of Yuki's death.  I had not seen him in recent years and did not know he had been seriously ill. I never knew Yuki very well or had much occasion to encounter him.  But when I did, it was always a very happy occasion.  He seemed to radiate a kind of contagious happiness that made one glad to be in his presence even if, especially with my deteriorating auditory capabilities, he was always hard to understand.  He will be missed by very many people.

I have often recounted an incident which took place when I was still at MIT, I think it was in 1965.  I saw Yuki somewhere and asked how his work was going.  He said "I am busier than United States Marine Corps".   Then President Johnson had sent Marines to Vietnam and the Dominican Republic.

Please accept my best wishes in this time of sorrow.

Yuki Kuroda is gone. I am profoundly sad. He was a great friend, an inspiring teacher, a profound thinker. Yuki was my very first generativist teacher at Vincennes, Paris in the fall of 1968. I have admired him ever since. He will remain in my thoughts forever.

Yuki was quite a rarity in a field that worships showmanship: a genuinely wise man and a retiring but warm and generous person. The study of Language has been much the richer for his part in it.

An incident way back in the 60s will forever remind me of Yuki. It was at one of the UCSD linguistic conferences, late in the afternoon on a very warm day. members of those assembled were arguing over some syntactic structure, each claiming that in his dialect you could or could not say the problematic example. Yuki quietly indicated he wanted to speak, and the two stopped and turned to him. With a smile on his face he said, "Well, in my diarect of English,...” When the laughing stopped, we all decided it was time to stop for the day.

We have lost a fine man and a fine linguist.

I have heard about the tragic death of Yuki. I am very shocked. Yuki was one of the people you want never to die. Yuki inspired admiration, respect, and love in so many people because of his special combination of mind and graciousness. The world is cruel, as we know: the best die too young.

I remember Yuki very fondly from graduate school at UCSD.  Not only was his intellect appreciated by the graduate students, but also his unique use of the blackboard.  With chalk in his right hand and an eraser in his left, the eraser came by almost immediately after whatever it is was that he had written.  Note takers had to stay awake to keep up.

I just heard the sad news that Yuki passed away. It makes me very sad to hear this. I really loved him as a mentor and as a person.

I've been thinking about Yuki a lot these days. Some sweet memories have been coming back to me from the time I shared with him in San Diego. Yuki was fond of taking me out to dinner every now and then (his favorite place was the Lemongrass Thai restaurant in La Jolla), and we would talk about my work (some), and also about politics and economics in Argentina and Japan (a lot). He was always so aware of everything that was going on. We will all miss him.

Yuki was a giant in the field and someone who so many of us looked up to.  His insights into language and his understanding of empirical facts were unparalleled, such that no matter how theories may have changed, his original observations and analyses were always the foundation for what followed. Yuki was a kind and generous man, one who took time to pay attention to the work of junior scholars in the field.  Having his attention and input helped sustain me early in my career, and was key in the formulation of some of my early scholarship. 

I feel great sorrow at the news of the passing of Kuroda sensei, and I would like to express my sincere condolences to the family. I truly respect his great accomplishments as a linguist, and I have had, and will continue to have, my heartfelt gratitude to him, as one of hte many linguists who got the highest assistance in Tohoku University, or possibly in Japan. Remembering his shy smile and warm voice, I pray that his soul may rest in peace.

I treasure every moments of inspiration and laughter with Yuki. There were lots and lots of these wonderful moments back at the UCSD days. I am constantly thinking about him and treasure the time we had together.

I'm very sorry to hear that Yuki is gone! I feel lucky to have seen him so recently.

We are really shocked to hear that Kuroda sensei passed away. We offer sincerest condolences on your husband's death. He contributed greatly to Tohoku University and especially to the Department of English Linguistics. Personally I am deeply grateful to have had him write a paper on translation in The State of the Art in Linguistic Research.I am very very sorry that we cannot see his sweet smile again. Some mails have informed me that an informal event for him is to be held in Japan. I hope you will take good care of yourself through this period of grief.

Please accept my deepest condolences at the passing of your husband Yuki. It is so sad to think that your years together in the same place were cut short. As a colleague for many years and as a friend, I send my support in this difficult time.

Professor Kuroda was a very kind and warm person. I learned a great deal from his writings, who showed me how a generative linguist could have insights into topics ranging from automata theory to literary theory, linguistic theory. The depth and breadth of his scholarship is awesome. he will remain a model of emulation for me.

I was very very sorry to hear from Lindsley the so sad news of Yuki's death. I hope you have good friends and family around you to help you bear the blow, and to comfort you through the sorrow.

I am stunned by your sad news and I'm so, so, so sorry, that Yuki is gone, and for you, of course, whose grief must be unbearable. Yuki will remain the most original mind I ever came across in the linguistic world, and he was also such a nice human person, a rare combination. I still remember the fantastic class he taught at Paris-8 in the 1970s, and a talk he gave some years later as he was working on the article that later became 'Where grammar, epistemology and style meet': that lecture was shockingly interesting (if these two words may be combined, they should be to describe this specific event). He gave the talk in French, with his impossible accent but very careful and sharp reasoning and examples, it was unforgettable. He had a truly free mind, a rare achievement, he was so inventive, and curious and learned, always came up with some challenging thought that required further brooding. I felt tremendous respect for him, and consider myself honoured to have met him in person. I have to adjust to the horrible thought that I will never see him again. Dear Susan, I know grief is a lonely experience that cannot truly be 'shared', but please be aware that people over here are grieving alongside your and Yuki's friends in other parts of the world.

I am so sorry; this is a terrible loss.

I'm so very sorry for your loss. I wanted to let you know you have been in my thoughts. I've known both of you for so long, since graduate school and I feel this loss particularly, someone from an earlier part of my life.

I've just learned about Yuki. I'm so sorry. Please know that my warmest thoughts are with you and that I wish you no more sorrow.

I'm very sorry to hear about Yuki's passing. I had no idea that he was not doing well and had expected that we would have him with us for a long time.

We were greatly saddened to hear that Yuki passed away last week. While we mourn the loss of a well-loved friend and teacher, we remember Yuki with a deep sense of awe and respect. He was indeed a legendary distinguished linguist whose many important contributions to many areas of linguistics will be remembered with much fondness. Hope the God of love comforts you in this difficult time. May the love of your family and friends sustain you and surround you all the time.

Prof. Kuroda will be remembered by all as a great scholar and a great linguist. However, for me and many other students who were lucky enough to have known him personally, he will be remembered more dearly as a great mentor and inspiration. I am deeply thankful to have known him and will always miss him.

With his nonlinear and unbounded mind and generosity and gentleness of spirit, Yuki has been an inspiration to both of us as to countless others. We miss him hugely as colleague, teacher, and dear friend.

I do not have real memories to share, since my interaction with Yuki was too recent and brief, unfortunately. But Yuki and I were supposed to meet and discuss one of his last papers on internally headed relative clauses, quantifier floating, and the definiteness effect. As soon as I started reading the paper months ago, Montague's words came to my mind. I believe Yuki would like them. "There is in my opinion no important theoretical difference between natural languages and the artificial languages of logicians; indeed, I consider it possible to comprehend the syntax and semantics of both kinds of languages withing a single natural and mathematically precise theory."

I am terribly sorry to hear that Kuroda-sensei passed away. Please accept my sincere condolences. His teaching at Tohoku University greatly influenced me as a linguist. He was a brilliant teacher and distinguished scholar of linguistics, and it was my pleasure to have known him. I also have good memories of seeing how humorous he was when he kindly invited us to a party at his apartment. I cannot imagine how you feel now, but my thoughts and prayers are with you at this awful time. In deepest sympathy.

I heard from Naoki Fukui that Kuroda-sensei passed away.  I am very sorry to hear this sad news.  Please let me express my sincerest condolences.  Although he was a giant, he talked to me very friendly when he visited Kyoto.  I will never forget the wonderful time I shared with two of you in Kyoto.  My sympathy is with you in your time of sorrow.

It was a great pleasure for me to have gotten to know Kuroda-sensei several years ago, and have been able to talk with him in several occasions since then, all fond memories of him in the future every time I work on various phenomena related to his great work.

I am very sorry and saddened by the fact that he left you and us. The last time I saw him (and you) was at the LSA in Chicago last year (2008)---he appeared just fine to me then. We talked about my paper that I gave there. Also he was listening to and giving advice to young Japanese linguists who I introduced to him.

You know, I have always wanted him to autograph my copy of his dissertation (from Garland). But I kept forgetting to bring it with me and kept saying ``There is always the next time''. Sadly, I was wrong. I have to keep in mind that with anything we deal with, there may not be the next time.

His memory stays with me (and many others).

Je suis profondément attristée de la disparition du Yuki. Il était non seulement un grand linguiste mais aussi un esprit d'une grande finesse et d'une grande générosité. Il avait su trouver, à mon endroit, des mots délicats quand en 1993, mon mari est mort. Je vous adresse mes bien sincères condoléances et vous prie de croire à mes sentiments de grande sympathie.

I hope things are slowly calming down, and you are doing well. Of course, Yuki will always be part of you, and I'm sure it hurts not to have him. But then, he will always be part of you. I'm glad you did have those good years. Keep the good things for the future.

I deeply share sorrow with you and wish to offer my condolences. Please convey more information about the tribute event in Japan and the tribute website (which seems not available yet) so that those linguists in Korea who respect and love Professor Kuroda's outstanding achievements can cherish his memories.

I am both shocked and deeply saddened to learn of Yuki's death. This must come as a tremendous blow to you, and you will be in my thoughts at this very, very trying time.

I didn't know Yuki was ill when you came by the other day, he looked so well and cheerful. This is such a shock. Yuki's book on Yawelmani is one of the first things I have read and understood in linguistics, so even if I didn't know him well, I thought of him as of an old friend.

I heard today from Jim Huang of Yuki's death. I'm so sorry. I send you my warmest regards and sympathy. It is terribly sad for all of us. Yuki has been part of the life of linguistics all the way since the early madcap days back at MIT, and for us to be without him now is unthinkable.

Please accept our heartfelt condolences on the passing away of Professor Kuroda. During his stay in Sendai, he gave literally a lot of stimulation and encouragement to us and our students.

I was shocked and saddened by the news that Kuroda sensei passed away. I did not know he was very ill either. I am very sorry, and please accept my condolences.

Kuroda sensei gave us several lectures at Keio over the years, and one such earlier occasion (around 1997), he visited our tiny little apartment, called "Imperial Palace" (our first apartment after we moved from US/Canada to Japan), and then we had a very traditional Japanese breakfast (shi-sha-mo, Ruriko prepared). We had a wonderful time with good laugh. When we were talking about cooking, in particular, soba making, he told us about your new kitchen, which was about the same size of our entire apartment. It is very sad to think that we won't be able to talk to Kuroda sennsei again, but we were very lucky to get to know him.

We just got the very sad news, Lauren and I, and we are both so sorry to hear about Yuki. We were just getting into our element together, our two families, and had such a wonderful time with you in Oakland three weeks ago tonight. I hope we can see you again soon. Our hearts and thoughts are with you.

It is with great sadness that I received the news, just a little while ago, of Yuki's passing. My warmest thoughts are with you.

I am very sorry and saddened to hear about Yuki. You have my deepest condolences. Yuki was a dear friend since the time I arrived at UCSD and an inspiring scholar.

I am shocked and deeply sad by this news. Let me send you my warmest regards, wishing you the strength which you will need to live through this difficult period.

We were very saddened to hear the news of Professor Kuroda's death. Mamoru Saito, who was here as an invited speaker for the Asian GLOW Colloquium, communicated the sad news to the linguistics community at the concluding ceremony of the Colloquium. Our thoughrts are with you at this sorrowful and difficult time.

This is so unreal, I cannot imagine how it can really be true. Yuki was looking so well the last time we saw him and you. This is just one more reminder how precious friends are.

I was just checking my email and got the sad news from a forwarded message by Jim Huang. I'm very, very sorry.

Just a note to let you know you are in my thoughts and prayers. Blessings on dear Yuki.

I'm dreadfully sorry; you must feel devastated and empty. Words are not much use in such a situation but it may be of some slight solace to know that your friends grieve with you. With deepest sympathy

Yuki had many friends, in the US, Japan, elsewhere in Asia, and in Europe. His work, friendship and care for others, have touched the lives of many, including his teachers, colleagues, and students old and young.

I just heard about Yuki's death. How truly, truly awful. I am so sorry, but so glad I got to see him and you at LSA. I have so many very, very good memories of him and am proud to have been his student.

I just heard about Yuki's passing from Ed Keenan. I'm so very sorry. My thoughts are with you.

Yesterday evening Tom Bever told me about Yuki;s death. I am so sorry. Yuki was a warm, gentle, brilliant person, and I will miss him greatly, as will everyone who knew him. I'm glad I had one last opportunity to speak with him in San Francisco in January. I hope that you are finding support and comfort from the people close to you.

So sorry about the sad news regarding Yuki. I still remember seeing you recently with your beautiful smile and infectious good cheer. And I hope that the underlying courage I sense from your smile will help you go through this difficult pass.

I was devastated to hear the news about Yuki: I had heard he was ill, but it was clearly a dreadful shock.

I did not know Yuki well, but every time we met I found him charming, intelligent, and a true gentleman (and that is a high compliment in England). He was a superb linguist, and the whole community will mourn his loss.

We are now on the third day of the glow in Asia jointly organized by EFL-U, India, and Nanzan. We never thought we would hear such sad news during the conference that connects Asia. We were always supported by him, and I heard the news in the middle of the first session, and I could not stop crying in the confence room. This is the feeling when we feel when we lose father.

I was utterly shocked and deeply saddened when I opened my email this morning and found John Moore's message about Yuki's passing away. Philomena and I want to say how sorry we are to learn of the sad news.

We moved back to Del Mar (from Escondido) in 2006. I remember asking Yuki if we could have lunch together. He told me that you were about to leave on vacation (to London, if memory serves me right). Somehow we kept postponing... I missed an opportunity to see him again; it will remain for me a profound regret in life.

It took me one whole day to somewhat recover from the shock... I just came back from a Japan Science Council meeting in Tokyo, during which I kept thinking about Yuki...

When I spoke to him on Monday, he sounded good, as usual. We spent about an hour talking about various things, including some mathematical stuff. His phone message that he left in my answering machine on Tuesday says he wanted to talk more about some mathematical stuff discussed in his latest paper (which I was/am proofreading), so I prepared some material and was ready to talk about them when I called his cell phone on Wednesday. Then, ...

To many others, I think, he has been a very special person to me. We happened to share various intellectual interests, and I always respected him and enjoyed very much talking with him. To say that I learned a lot from him would be a gross understatement. He is one of the greatest intellectual giants I've ever met, and furthermore, he was such a charming human being. There will never be another Yuki Kuroda, at least not in my lifetime...

J'ai appris hier soir par 'parislinguists' et je suis infiniment touchée pour toi et pour Yuki. J'espère qu'il n'a pas trop souffert. Et puis voilá , nous ne nous rappellerons plus, très malheureusement. Je perd un grand ami (par la stature et la qualité) pour lequel j'ai toujours eu énormément d'affection et d'estime. J'espère que tu me garderas un peu de cette amitié qu'il y avait entre nous. Il y avait tant d'amis communs qui nous unissaient. Je me sens très triste, et je pense beaucoup á lui et á toi. C'est en t'écrivant que je réalise pleinement et que je ressens cette grande perte.

I have just read Jim Huang's message with the sad news about Yuki. I had not seen him for long time, but had many occasions to think of him and his ideas in these years: most recently with a Japanese student here in Siena, who had discovered that in order to understand Japanese relatives she had to go back to Yuki's seminal work. I thought I would see him again in June at the Tokyo meeting of the Linguistic Society of Japan, and was looking forward to that. It's so sad that this won't happen. Adriana and I feel close to you in this moment of sorrow

It's so sad to think of Yuki gone. He was a very special person, one who seemed impossible to dislike. I first met him in 1962, when we were both graduate students in courses taught by Noam Chomsky. He used to sit in the front row, typically next to Sandy Schane, and I'd see him nod or shake his head from time to time. Since I was a beginner-a Master's student at Harvard taking courses after work- he was way ahead of me and I asked him quite a few times about topics I didn't understand. He was always helpful, humorous and clear. Moreover he could be sceptical about points Noam made and this was particularly valuable. I'd go to him for oral help and get notes from Arnold Zwicky-a useful combination.

I next encountered Yuki when I started a PhD programme at UCSD. This time he was a professor and I still a student. This seemed to make no difference to him. He was friendly and helpful as always. His insights on issues I'd ask him about were frequently brilliant and original. It was a privilege to know him.

He was too young to leave us so soon. We've lost a beautiful mind as well as a wonderful human being. Please accept my sympathy for your loss- a loss to all who knew him.

Susan -- I just learned of Yuki's passing from Farrell. Although I must be out of town this weekend, I'm thinking of you.

I cannot thank you enough for asking me to come see you both on Saturday.

I was deeply saddened when Hajime told me about Yuki's passing. Yuki was a very special person, and I will keep him and you in my thoughts. I'll especially miss the vibrant conversations with Yuki at meetings of the LSA.

Please accept my most sincere condolences.

I heard about Yuki last night from Ed Keenan. What a blow this must be to you -- you two have been devoted to each other for so many years. I want to wish you a lot of strength and courage to get through this tough time.

Haruo Kubozono just shared with us the sad news that Kuroda sensei past away. I am so very sorry. I have known Kuroda sensei for many years, of course, as a famous linguistics professor. But for the past couple of years, I felt like I've gotten to know him personally through the Kubozono workshops, the Onsen tours, and his (and your) visit to my lab here at Riken. It has been such a pleasure to have spent a few hours, talking about a number of things on prosody and syntax, and he never stopped amazing his colleagues, including myself, with his brilliance as a linguist, and genuine warmth as a person. I will miss him very much. I cannot even imagine what it must be like for you. But we all love you, and our thoughts are with you. Please do drop by, when you are in Japan, so that we can share our memories of Yuki. My sincere condolences.

I am very sorry to hear the news. I was hoping to see Yuki again. In fact I had thought of you both recently, when I was reading a little about ASL and gestures, and, I saw, I think, that you were coming to Paris.

I have spoken of Yuki with my son Chris, reminding him that Yuki had visited us when he was quite young, maybe five or six years ago, and I have told him he was lucky to have met such a fine linguist, even though he doesn't remember him. But my wife, Patricia, does, and I will never forget him, or you. We're a long long way and time from Cambridge in the sixties, but we were lucky to be there then.

I didn't know him long, but he was just one of those men that one knows from the very first instant that one will love their company, and enjoy whatever it is they illuminate one's thoughts with.

I heard from Naoki yesterday that Kuroda-sensei had passed away. We are all shocked that we will not be seeing him again. We all respected and admired him, and loved him.

What a wonderful person Yuki has been for the world! He even took an interest in my work, asking me a question -- about the difference (if any) between natural philosophy and science -- that I bear in mind always as I write, in the attempt to be clear.

Thank you so much for sending me the sad news. I share your grief, and I wish you strength and comfort. Yuki was one of the dearest, sweetest people I ever knew, besides brilliant. And sometimes very funny: I still remember when, after going to the blackboard during a discussion at one of the first San Diego syntax conferences, probably 1967 or so, and writing out his judgments about the grammaticality of some minimal pair, he turned back to us with a shy grin and said, "At reast in my diarect." Emmon and I chuckled about that for years.

Yuki was a wonderful man, a great scholar, and funny too. I'm sorry I didn't get to see him again.

I am utterly shocked and saddened by the news of Kuroda-sensei's passing. Perhaps, no consoling words will lessen your sadness right now, but you have all of my sympathy.

I came to know Kuroda-sensei fairly late in my academic career, and he made a profound impact on me. He was one of the greatest minds, truly creative, thoroughly original, but most of all, his kindness and modesty made him someone I truly admire.

I am feeling very sad about the news that he is gone, but am very grateful that I had a chance to see him, and you, again before he left. He seemed so good. And as always, so endearing and so fine. I can't imagine what it must be like for you to lose him.

I will keep thinking of him and of you.

I just heard the very sad news about Yuki. I'm so very sorry. He will really be missed.

I was saddened to hear the news of Yuki's passing. I am terribly sorry for your loss. Yuki was a giant in our field, and we will all miss him.

I just got to know that Yuki has deceased. I'm stunned. You sent me the New Year's letter, which I greatly enjoyed and which made me relieved regarding Yuki. And I was going to invite Yuki again for the next academic year, if his condition allowed ....

I just wanted to write and offer my condolences for Professor Kuroda's passing. We were at the Asian Glow conference in Hyderabad when we got the news and it cast a shadow. His contributions to Japanese linguistics have benefited the field so much. I can only imagine how deeply you must feel his loss.

I wasn't expecting such terrible news. I can still see him as he was the last time we had dinner together at the Menchanko-Tei. Though our paths didn't cross very much, Yuki was always a presence for me. We had connections through Paris that went back a very long time, and although I may not have met him in the one year we intersected at M.I.T., I knew some of his work from that period well, even if not as well as I should have. His point about in that way/*in it is something that I still think about, and the same is true for his work on relativization. I'm sure that his work on Japanese was even more subtle (in ways that I was unable to appreciate) than his work on English, but the latter remains a model to be emulated.

I am so sorry to hear of Yuki's passing. Yuki touched the lives of so many students and friends. He was an interesting fellow with many eclectic tastes and such a sense of adventure in the kitchen (Salade Nicoise Chinoisie). Yuki will be missed.

We just heard the sad news at the GLOW Conference in Hyderabad. I opened my e-mail account here for the first time, hoping to find out that the news was wrong. I am really sorry. Please accept our deepest sympathy.

Yuki has been a close and admirable friend for me for about half a century. I remember Prof. Shiro Hattori of the University of Tokyo talked about his application as a Master student coming from a mathematical background with a lot of excitement. Later I recommended him to Noam Chomsky as a PhD student. When I saw Morris Halle later, he talked about Yuki in enthusiasm praising his rigorous scholarship. Yuki had taken his phonology class and turned in a term ot like and returned for a revision. Yuki came back after elabration and Morris liked the paper so much that the manuscript was immediately sent to MIT Press for publication of the well-appreciated monograph (1967) on Yawelmani Phonology. I came back to Japan after 30 years of work in US (a little shorter than Yuki's), and Yuki visited me at IIAS in Kyoto and later, as I moved, in Kamakura, I am seriously interested in the wide variety of his work, particularly now in his radically new theory of feature geometry in relation to my own work on the C/D model.

I miss him as a truly trustworthy personal friend, and as somebody who can advise me solidly in theories of syntax and phonology. I need him.

I am so terribly sorry for your loss, which is also our loss. Yuki was a great linguist and a great man. We were all fortunate to have known him.

Yuki was a quintessential intellectual. He was often ahead of many of us in looking into the nature of language and cognition, and it is our loss that we sometimes found him hard to understand. He was a deeper thinker than anybody else I know. He was also a man of great integrity and caring, very loyal to his friends and strong in defending his positions against those whom he disagreed with. He was demanding of himself, and that allowed him to be demanding of others. As a linguist, he defied classification-his contributions span phonology, syntax, semantics, and philosophy of language, and each of these subfields claims him as its own. Yuki inspired many generations of linguists and was a very generous mentor and colleague. I feel very fortunate to have known him, and I miss him a lot ...

Carla and I felt like someone slapped us in the face when we read your email. Since we just had our 30th anniversary and you witnessed our wedding, it follows that we have known you both for over 30 years, hard as that is to believe.

The two of you have been in and out of our lives but always in our hearts. Yuki will always be Yukala to us. He was definitely one of nicest human beings we have met on this Earth. Yuki's passing reminded us how short life really is.

My message to Yuki:

Also an Irish Blessing for St. Patrick's Day:

May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
And rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.
And may He bless our beloved Yuki and treasure him as we did while he lived.

Yuki has been a part of my research career from the beginning. Although he was in Linguistics and I was in Computer Science, my PhD thesis was, to a large extent, based on his work. But, Yuki was more than a research colleague. He was a dear and true friend. I miss him tremendously.

I haven't seen Yuki for a long time, but the news of his death brought back a number of warm memories. Yuki was a truly sweet man, with his wonderful smile, at the same time shy and sly. He was the only male visitor Cassie the poodle was ever completely enthusiastic about. I'll never forget one dinner at Susan's during which Yuki explained why, with its balance of forces, baseball was the perfect game. I was charmed.

Only today I heard the sad news. I remember him as a beautiful person and I remember a dinner together in a Roman terrace in front of the Colosseum with lot of conversations going on in a variety of signed and spoken languages with Yuki perfectly managing the situation with his silent graciousness. He was a very kind person. Please, Susan accept my deepest condolences.

Oh what an immeasurably sad loss, and what a special wonderful man Yuki was... brilliant, gentle, a beautiful soul, and yes, also delightfully witty. We remember him well, but from long ago. He used to drive up our narrow driveway backwards much more easily than forwards. And when we talked about you, Susan, he said proudly, "She says about 100 words to my one." A beautiful man, and a great loss to all.

Yuko Yanagida and I are sitting here in Tsukuba thinking about Yuki. We wish that we could all be with you in La Jolla on the 17th. Yuki was one of the people who made the last 50 years in our field something special.

Yuki was a brilliant thinker. Yuki and Susan together made a powerful team whose intellect shined in every room they entered, yet they both remained humble, gracious, generous, and have never made others feel inferior regardless of education. They also had a keen sense of humor and this is what I cherish most, where would any of us be without humor after all. While Yuki's jokes were sometimes over my head (despite my hard-earned doctoral degree), both Susan and Yuki brought smiles to me in a great time of need. In the year 2000, the doctors had given me grim news as I battled an illness whose remedy included losing my hair. The day that Yuki and Susan came to visit me while I was recovering at my mother's peaceful home where I grew up as a child, I answered the door wearing a hat and - warming my heart immediately - they reached out to gently hug me, both wearing bright hats.

Being an immigrant in any country is not always easy and we were lucky that Yuki shared his special culture with us as he tried to judge the times when it makes sense to break with tradition and yet he embraced some traditions. He helped us think about and reevaluate our own habits too. The rainbow of photos shown at his touching memorial service (which happened to be the day of my own birthday) revealed the long road he travelled as he made improvements along the way by enlightening all of our lives.

I am still startled to be writing this today after seeing him in the hospital a little over a week ago with my mother when he seemed so alert that he could have given classes that very day. His life teaches us to celebrate the moment - thank you Yuki for your teachings and personality - and we all reach out to you Susan (and Yuki's large family of friends) during this time of transition. Here's to the humor that was so close to Yuki and that you, Susan, keep alive in your regular mailings which I'm lucky to receive. I'm grateful to have you both always in my life.

Yuki and I met over a glance - he was literally the only person I'd ever seen eye to eye with (heels notwithstanding)! Ingres, penne puttanesca, blood pressure checks, Susan, movies, Chai coffee cake in the middle of a shopping center, Walt, lemons and oranges, photographs, his tender letter when my own father passed away...I loved Yuki...quiet moments, convertible drives, deeply fulfilling, a best friend. He will always live in my heart.