ESADE commemoration of Max Boisot

I flew into Barcelona yesterday on the final leg of an overlong trip. The reason was to attend a gathering in memory of Max Boisot organised by ESADE at the Universidad Ramon Llull where Max taught for many years. Eugenia Bieto, Jonathan Wareham and Conxita Folguera deserve much praise for organising it, and for their words at the event. Otherwise we had the three old me of myself, J C Spender and Bill McKelvey talking of his contribution to the field of knowledge and our personal experiences of working with him. Agustí Canals and Sabrina Moreira who had been his PhD students gave particularly moving tributes.

I focused on using the words from Max’s blog as a focusing device and thanks to Les Hales (in the picture with Max and myself) prompt response to an email was able to share some pictures of Max at the Hong Kong Sevens last year. We only got him to come by arguing that it would provide a source of anthropological study. Once there he threw himself into the spirit of the thing as can be seen from the picture below. The requiem mass had been a solemn affair and I broke down when speaking. This was more of a celebration, a memory of happy times; but the sense of loss is still there.

Max at the seven’s dinner

2010