554 NOTICES OF THE AMS VOLUME 53, NUMBER 5 R aoul Bott passed away on December 20, 2005. In a career spanning five decades, he has wrought profound changes on the landscape of geometry and topology. It is a daunting task to improve upon his own reminiscences [B3], [B4], [B1] and commentaries on papers [B5], punctuated as they are by insight, colorful turns of phrases, and amusing anecdotes. Thi...