Remarks for Dick Volz Festschrift, 9 April 2010
Ken Goldberg, UC Berkeley
(Read by Dezhen Song, Ken's former Student and Dick's mentee and colleague)

"It's not what we eat, but what we digest that makes us strong;
  It's not what we gain, but what we save that makes us rich;
  It's not what we read, but what we remember that makes us learned;
  and it's not what we profess, but what we practice that gives us integrity."
  - Francis Bacon.

Dick Volz exemplifies integrity.

In addition to what Dick professes, I admire his practices and his
dedication: to his family, to his field, to the IEEE, to his students,
his colleagues, and to his friends.

Dick's sense of duty is quite remarkable.  I've never met anyone so
active and available.  When you work with him on a project he is
amazingly focused.  When you email him with a question, you'll get a
thoughtful response very quickly.  Usually within the hour.  Even if
you send the question on a Sunday.  Even if it is Sunday at 3am ;)

There is one drawback to this.  When Dick asks for your help on a new
project, it's impossible to say no... ;)

Dick did a terrific job as Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on
Robotics and Automation, the major journal in our field, restructuring
the organization and reducing review times dramatically. He was then
elected Vice President of RAS Publications.  Thinking about the
future, he wanted to expand the journal to include more research
papers on Automation.

In November 2001, Dick asked me to help him on a "little project".  To
make a long story short, after threej years of discussions and designs
and meetings and re-designs, he and Peter Luh and I and a team of
colleagues gained approval for a new journal, the IEEE Transactions on
Automation Science and Engineering, which is now in 6th year and
receives on average one submission per day from around the world.

This grew from Dick's original vision, but he won't tell you that.  He
is truly modest.  (somewhat of a rare quality in our field ;)

As IEEE RAS President, Dick took bold steps to reorganize our research
review practices, artfully deflecting opposition to establish
effective a new paper reviewing system, and he reorganized our Awards
system, creating a system of checks and balances that ensure fairness
and avoid even the appearance of conflict of interest.

These are major and lasting changes.  And though there was some
resistance, Dick treats everyone with deep courtesy and patience and
he has earned the respect of everyone in return.

Dick has made a profound influence on central issues for our Society: 
our publications, our paper review system, our award selection system.

Dick is a gentle giant.  He has moved mountains.

Dick has taught us all about integrity.  He has had a major influence
on my student Dez Song, I'm very proud that he's now a professor at
Texas A&M.  Dick always has a warm smile for a friend, colleague, or
student.  With his lovely wife Mary by his side, Dick is truly a
gentleman and a scholar.  We are all extremely lucky to have him as a
colleague, and as a friend.

- Ken Goldberg, Spring, 2010