I moved from California to Cambridge in 1970, to start my first academic position as an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Harvard. I had already heard of Egon Bittner and knew he taught at Brandeis. My fellow Ethnomethdologists (my specialty at the time) knew him as a ‘good man’, but not one who was on the cutting edge of our field. He had trained with Harold Garfinkel but EM1 was not his sole focus. At Harvard, I learned more. Egon had become the mentor and advisor for Harvard students, who were interested in Ethnomethodology and Phenomenology. They made regular pilgrimages to Brandeis where they audited his classes, and met with him individually. Students approached these meetings with some trepidation, and were more than slightly intimidated by his knowledge and intellect. Bittner could suddenly call you to account on some point of reason‐ ing, revealing embarrassing, even scary, lacks in preparation. But for the same reason, they looked up to him, and eagerly sought his evaluations and approval. If Egon thought your ideas were sound, you really had something.