Martin Hofmann found dead on Japanese mountain

[Thomas Streicher <stre...@mathematik.tu-darmstadt.de>]

Though many of you may know by now already I think I have the sad duty
to tell you that yesterday Martin Hofmann's corpse was found on the
Japanese mountain where he found his death in a snow storm on 21st of
January this year.
Due to the very bad weather it took some time till rescue teams could
start looking for him. Initially there was some hope that he could
have found shelter in a hut. A hope which shaded more and more the
last two weeks.

He leaves his wife Annette and his three children.

For me there has died a most important part of the good old days. In
the period from roughly 1987 till 1997 we had an intense collaboration.
I owe a lot to his insight and optimism. He would carry on when I
would have given up. What an exciting time! I owe him a lot!

Though our interests diverged a bit over the years we still kept contact,
also privately. The last two years we even started again a little project on
splitting models of type theories with universes.

We should have met more often but thought there were still a lot of
time ahaed for both of us.
Tragically this has turned out as a mistake!

A few communities have lost an original mind and driving force.
And many people have lost a very good friend. Me certainly!

Thomas