It’s been nearly 10 years and 20 issues since I started working with Paul on West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture. For this, I owe a debt to the journal that I can never repay. In Paul, I gained a mentor, colleague, and a lifelong friend. It’s strange to me how quickly this last decade has gone by but also not surprising since working closely with Paul has been one of my life’s great pleasures. I think I can safely say that he will be irreplaceable on West 86th Street. His presence on the fourth floor of building 38 always loomed large in the hall, and I always looked forward to seeing him in the morning at the end of a long commute from New Haven. As everyone who has been in contact with Paul knows, his sweeping and exact knowledge on an astonishing breadth of topics (not just of modernism, British and Central European design history, English and Scottish football, or punk music from the seventies and eighties) is matched only by his keen wit and often wicked sense of humor.

His genuine warmth, compassion, and empathy for students, colleagues, and friends has gotten us all through some tough times and always made people feel special. It won’t be the same around here without him, but I couldn’t be happier that he will continue on as Editor-in-Chief of the journal from his bucolic home in the Scottish borders, which will ensure that his influence will be ongoing for the foreseeable future. I, for one, am not ready to say goodbye, and BGC still has a lot left to learn from Professor Stirton.

– Dan Lee