Much of my father's work during the last twenty years had to had to do with looking at the physiology of traditional Chinese medical practices, and trying to understand what treasures were stored in its traditions. In 1973 my father, ever the adventurer and entrepreneur, started The American Journal of Chinese Medicine and also inaugurated The Institute for Advanced Research in Asian Science and Medicine. It was important that dignified and scholarly institutions of this sort came into being at that time. In the 1970's acupuncture became a craze, a fad, a subject of preoccupation. Clearly, some degree of scholarship, of serious investigation was required, particularly given widespread use of traditional medicine in China at the time for the treatment of all kinds of medical conditions. I think my father enjoyed this part of his life because of the practical, in-the-world activities that could be pursued. As much as he had loved the laboratory and the more solitary pursuits of writing and thinking about pure science, he also seemed to welcome, with all of its understandable frustrations, the opportunity to step out on stage and to get things done in the world.

The tempo of his work was rapid. My father made contact with the Shanghai First Medical College, and shortly thereafter was made honorary professor there. He also became involved in sponsoring a wide range of exchange activities between institutions in China and his home institution, the State University of New York. In many respects, my father served as a bridge: between geographies, between cultures, between ways of looking at medicine. In validation of his work, the World Health Organization asked my father and the Institute to become a.i.WHO collaborating center; WHO collaborating center. On the home front, in 1982, the mayor of New York made the following proclamation, "Now therefore I, Ed Koch, Mayor of New York do hereby proclaim March 19, 1982 as World Medicine Day in recognition of the Institute for Advanced Research in Asian Science and Medicine."

Clearly, my father's work had a great life and vitality, both in its scientific incarnation and also in its role as a bridge between East and West. This work will continue. Many of us have pledged to continue to work on these worthwhile causes, to try to further some of his very unique perspectives as a bridge and translator between East and West in an effort to integrate different forms of medical practice into an ecumenical medicine.

I would like to comment a bit, finally, on my father as a man. We all have our views of him, our memories of him, of his energy, his enthusiasm, his love of life, his perpetual questioning and inquisitiveness, his knack for turning up an interesting intellectual nugget of great surprise, his spirit of adventure, his entrepreneurial energies, his ability to see opportunities and jump on them, make things happen and get people excited about them, about what could be done. A major theme of my father's life was his love of young people. My father was a teacher all his life, and enjoyed great loyalty and regard from his students.

He was a tireless worker, more like a horse born in the early morning. I spent a great deal of time with my father in the hospital prior to his death, and know that even there he was working, editing his memoirs, phoning colleagues, asking for books from his library at home, and making plans. I will never forget the image of him sitting in bed with a baseball cap on sideways, exhorting his physicians on to greater efforts because he wanted get back to his study and to his work. He was a great colleague. He was an iconoclast. He wasn't afraid to appear as himself, obviously different from others around him. He was warm, with a great sense of humor. He had a discerning mind, a dignified, gentle, subtle perspective which was able to see a great deal.