Sometimes it is difficult for me to really understand the gifts that I have received throughout my life. The real ones certainly are not financial or material. My real gifts have been as small as watching a flamenco dance in Madrid that was near perfection. Everyone who was with me who watched the dance seemed to understand they had seen an extraordinary performance and it has given us a special memory to share. Another major gift in my life and the lives of many optics and electro-optics colleagues was the friendship of Tim Edwards.

I met Tim Edwards when I was a junior engineer at Lockheed Martin (known as Martin Marietta back then), where he was a mid- to senior-level electro-optics engineer. We both worked on the LANTIRN targeting pod. Tim was an exceptional engineer. We quickly became great colleagues and friends. In 1990, when I left Lockheed to be an assistant professor at the University of Memphis, Tim came to Memphis to study under Carl Halford. He made my time at the university very enjoyable and he fell into a natural role of mentoring the younger students. In 1995, I moved to Washington, DC to work at the US Army Night Vision and Electronics Sensors Directorate. Tim moved at the same time and ran a sister branch that dealt with lab testing and field testing of electro-optical systems. While there, he conducted some outstanding research, continued mentoring the younger scientists and engineers, and taught classes on the performance of electro-optical systems. About 7-8 years later he moved to Huntsville to work at the US Army Aviation and Missiles Research and Development Center.

Tim’s impact on optics and electro-optics was significant because he seemed to raise the performance of younger scientists and engineers to a higher level. He was happiest when mentoring or teaching and he was truly interested in the happiness and welfare of the colleagues around him. There are countless scientists and engineers who will say that Tim helped enhance their careers by challenging them to do better. He did the same with me, where I saw him defend me with my superiors almost to the detriment of his own career. He loathed oppressive management and he was the champion of the younger, less experienced, and less informed. He was everything you would want in a senior mentor and he did this with little to no formal recognition. There are quite a few of us senior scientists and engineers who are thankful for our relationship with Tim and how we benefited from his fun and productive style, always with a smile and an encouraging word.

I am saddened that Tim died recently, March 19, 2016. He suffered from alcoholism. Many of us reached out to him over the years, but now I wish he had wanted our help.

I am thankful for Tim Edwards and I consider him a gift in my life. I feel as though he left part of himself with me because he helped define who I am. Tim Edwards is the subject of this editorial because of his positive impact in the world of optics and electro-optics, especially as a trusted mentor to many scientists and engineers that work in the area.