Most of us at CSAIL remember Michael as a colleague at MIT.  My perspective was different - during most of his years as Director of LCS, I was a colleague at IBM Research.

Through Michael, MIT was a unique institution to interact with.  At almost every other academic institution I visited, I heard about individual projects.  From Michael I heard broad, overarching visions about the future, and interdisciplinary projects to bring that future on.  Athena, World Wide Web Consortium, Oxygen.

Many of my visits were about PhD recruiting for IBM Research.  My university colleagues mostly wanted to place their students.  Only Michael energetically insisted on imparting his vision.  One of a kind!