The wonderful unique Randy Picker died suddenly last Saturday.

The Law School at The University of Chicago put out an outstanding obituary which I urge you to read.

Here, I will simply make three points.

Randy and I talked about all sorts of things. Many of them were controversial and either bordering on or frankly political. What stood out was that I never knew where Randy stood on these issues, some of which I felt strongly about. As my colleague law professor Todd Henderson said, Randy would not take a side. Remarkably, I did not care where he stood. He could dissect an issue from all angles without prejudice. Because of that, I knew that wherever Randy landed would be a place that he arrived at with care and thought. I also knew that he held his opinions with humility and open-ness. I trusted him to to change his mind if new evidence or compelling lines of reasoning arose.

Randy could tell a story. That is what he has done in his upcoming book. To quote from the Law School obituary noted above:

“The Quest for Next: A Competitive History of the Computer Industry explores how law and antitrust shaped competition, innovation, computers, and chips. The book, a sweeping history of how law has shaped the computing and technology industry, is widely expected to be a field-defining work.”

Here is a video of Randy that I love. He recorded this on the October day (20^th) in 2020 when the U.S. DOJ brought an anti-trust against Google. Whatever your field, you can understand Randy because he is such a brilliant story-teller. Just listening to him speak makes me smile so widely. This same plain-speaking clarity is sure to make his international story of computer chips a great read.

Randy was UChicago through and through. He received copious education here and provided even more copious education for myriad UChicago students. He regularly served on the most important committees and in the most important positions on those committees. I absolutely treasured my time with Randy on the Faculty Advisory Board for the 2020-2021 UChicago Presidential Search.

I am so profoundly sad to never again have the pleasure of sitting across from Randy over a Medici breakfast. Please read about Randy. Make his memory a blessing.