It is sad to lose a friend. This past weekend the Argo community lost Steve Piotrowicz, a good friend to the Argo community for a very long time. His job was that of NOAA manager of the US Argo program, a job he completed with industry and thoroughness. He went a lot farther than that: he worked hard to make Argo better known and he advised us on issues arising in the Law of the Sea that could affect what we do. He did his job very well and we will be poorer without him. I wish to mention one personal memory. Steve and I attended one meeting of ABE-LOS (Advisory Board of Experts – Law of the Sea) and neither of us were happy with the meeting. I lost my temper at the meeting; Steve Piotrowicz had the same sense of anxiety but somehow kept his own emotions under control.

The photo is cropped from the “family picture” at the most recent Argo Steering Team meeting, AST-19 in Sidney, BC, Canada. It shows Steve in the right context, with friends and colleagues. Steve is the person closest to the centre of the picture.

Howard Freeland
Argo Director emeritus
Institute of Ocean Sciences, Canada.