A.C.E. only recently learned that our long time friend and colleague, Professor Takashi Nara, passed away last year. Professor Nara chaired the English language department at Morioka College in Sendai Japan. Formerly, he was the Executive Director of the Tokyo YMCA College of English, where our Tokyo affiliate ACE-J is now based, when that office opened almost fifteen years ago. Back in 1979, Professor Nara brought over 100 students to our Language Institute at Seattle Pacific College (now Seattle Pacific University), and in the following years brought hundreds more to the institute at Pacific Lutheran University, as he favored its more rural environment. Professor Nara, you will be missed.