I was a student at HPSC from 1971-1974, completing my dissertation under the supervision of Alberto Coffa.  The first course I took when arriving at HPSC was a course on Historical Understanding taught by Ron Giere.  Coming from the field of mathematics this course was an eye opener introduction to the Philosophy of Science.  That I got through the course was partly due to the kindness Ron showed towards this beginner.  The papers I wrote for the course were probably quite bad but Ron always went out of his way to find some small positive part.  I took a number of courses from Ron and recall having long conversations about various topics from The Formal Turn in Philosophy of Science to Kenneth Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem.  One of the summers I taught the undergraduate HPSC course on Scientific Reasoning using Ron’s book, "Understanding Scientific Reasoning".  Teaching that course and using that book taught me how much we can learn from teaching undergraduate courses with the right book.   I had not seen Ron since leaving HPSC 45 years ago but have thought about him often.  It was sad to hear that he has left us.
 
Mark Tamthai
Philosophy and Peacebuilding, Payap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand