Hi All.

I stumbled on this blog and can't believe there will be SAS after Rick. Many years ago, I was working on a SAS programming book and was confused about an obscure feature of PROC FORMAT (I believe it was called enhanced numeric informat - where you can read both text and numerics in one step resulting in a numeric value). As a SAS author, I had access to SAS developers. I called SAS tech support and I was transferred to Rick as the expert on PROC FORMAT. Rick told me "When I wrote PROC FORMAT . . .." I was speaking to the guy who wrote PROC FORMAT! That was like speaking to GOD!/ Since that time I have become friends with Rick and it is impossible to imagine the contributions he has made to SAS in his years there. Best of luck Rick!