No abstract; this is the first paragraph:
Ever since Rick Shull asked me to prepare an essay of appreciation of Fred Keller, I have found myself putting it off. Somehow, something else was always needing to be done. Finally, I realized what was happening. I just did not want to face the fact that Fred was no longer with us. After a relationship that extended over more than 50 years, during which Fred taught me both pedagogically and by example, it is not easy to deal with the fact that the personal interaction I had come to value and, I realize now, to depend on, is no longer possible. The same is true for Rita, who had come to love Fred (he was fond of calling her "Rio Rita") even without having been his student. Knowing how much Fred meant to allly, we still have Frances, without whom our relationship with Fred would only have been half of what it actually was. But we have to face reality, and one of the functions of preparing and reading an essay like this is to help us.