Amos and I met when we were both scruffy looking graduate students in 1984 and our computer programs were being shown in adjacent company booths as Amos has described:

https://www.academia.edu/2958783/Serendipity_in_bioinformatics_the_tribulations_of_a_Swiss_bioinformatician_through_exciting_times_?source=swp_share

Among the sea of people in suits and ties, we each noticed the other long haired guy in a tee shirt that the sales people would call out from the back whenever someone had a question about the science or technical issues with the software. We became friends and then collaborators as I moved to NCBI and Amos moved to SIB and we each created both. Neither of us ever dressed much better, but we both became leaders of important bioinformatic institutes. Through the years we both fought for open access, the free exchange of ideas, and the power of computation and information in the biosciences. There were a number of tense times and big stakes, but Amos always held honesty, collegiality, and openness to all people as his guiding lights which was a wonderful relief for me, and I was always glad to see him coming. I valued Amos as a friend and a colleague for my entire career and I feel luck to have known him. I am sorry he is gone. It is a loss to field and the people around him.