SIR: I would like to pay my own personal tribute to Dr Myron Kofman, whose tragically sudden death was reported in your pages on May 29. For several years I shared an office with him and kept in contact after I retired from the Institute just over a year ago. We were friends.

Myron was a remarkable man with a memorable personality, who was a good teacher and one very much liked by his students. But he was something further; he was an intellectual of some distinction. Not only were his width of culture and his mental grasp impressive, but his cosmopolitan background, his knowledge of the French language and his inwardness with French culture made him an intellectual rather in the Continental than the British tradition. As such, he made a unique contribution to the Institute and one which I venture to think is irreplaceable.

Shortly before he died, his book on the French savant and philosopher, Edgar Morin, had been published and Myron's talents were coming to the notice of a wider academic public. Not only did his study win Morin's own approval (though he never sought it) but he was being accepted in France as an authority on Morin's work. In a country with its own brand of cultural chauvinism that was no mean feat. It is a sad irony that Myron should have died just when his academic future looked bright and he was full of plans and projects.

Malcolm Pittock

St James's Avenue, Breightmet

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