The first time I met Lotfi A. Zadeh was in 1977 during a colloquium, held in Cachan and entitled “Théorie de l’information: développements récents et applications”, which I was co-organizing with my boss at the time, Claude-François Picard. I was slightly awed at the idea of meeting him in person. His wife, Fay, was accompanying him and I had not realized, at that time, how uncomfortable it was for them to stay in the student housings of a French institute, in the suburbs of Paris. This situation was typical of Lotfi and his eagerness to participate in workshops and conferences, whatever their size might have been, to defend fuzzy set theory and meet the community interested in his work. He has been an untiring traveler and orator and the success of fuzzy set theory certainly lies in his ability to give clear and educational lectures, always suited to the audience.