Rest in peace, Shlomo Bentin

Anat, who is now in Paris, called yesterday and broke devastating news to me. Shlomo Bentin, who used to be her PhD advisor, was killed in a car accident in Berkeley, CA.
Ever since, my eyes are on the verge of tearing. Even I myself am surprised by the intensity of my sadness.

I realize this might sound strange. In most cases, a PhD student's spouse barely knows their advisor. They might meet a couple times and shake hands, but typically no personal relations are formed.
This is probably a pure indication of Shlomo's greatness, as a person.

It makes little sense for me to elaborate about how magnificent a scientist Shlomo was. I'll leave that to far greater people than me. In fact, they did just that a couple months ago, when declaring Shlomo an Israel Prize winner.
What I valued most about Shlomo was his personality, the way he nurtured his students, the extent to which he deeply cared about them. Having seen quite a few people in the academic world, I was awe-inspired by the atmosphere and enthusiasm Shlomo managed to inject into his lab and his students, by his ability to form personal and affectionate (rather than authoritative) relations with people around him.

Merely two months ago we attended a party in Tel-Aviv, where generations of Shlomo's students celebrated his nomination as an Israel Prize winner. Shlomo and Miri, his wife, were glowing and happy, full of optimism and plans for the future. We hugged and chatted and I was amazed by how close I still felt to them, despite seeing them infrequently in the past few years.

In a chilling hindsight, that was a farewell from Shlomo.
I still can't believe I'm writing these words.