In Memoriam: Ivan Daskalov: 1933 – 2004

Friendship is a unique human relationship. It is a mutual freely consensual activity between two people. Each friendship is different and inexplicable, and based on its own particulars. When you lose a friend, you lose something special, you lose a part of yourself. But that friendship is not really lost if you pass it on to others.Ivan Daskalov was my friend. He had been ill for a while, so his death was not completely unexpected. Yet I cannot but feel that he should have been here longer. People involved in health care often somehow feel that their work in trying to conquer nature's ineluctable passage gives them and their loved ones immunity from the inevitable fate of us all. After all, that is one reason that many of us became biomedical engineers to begin with.I met Ivan some 15 years ago at an IEEE/EMBS conference. (In truth, I am not sure just how long ago it was.) He made some very gentle comment about my presentation, and we talked for a while. That was the only time that I actually met him in person, and my first impression, which was only reinforced as I came to know him better, was that he was a true gentleman. Over the years we communicated by mail and then mostly by e-mail. Our correspondence covered many topics, but mostly was about the joys and tribulations of life. Our views meshed almost perfectly, despite our growing up in different parts of the world. Maybe it was because we were close contemporaries in time, and as children saw the world through a great war.We exchanged small gifts: I would send him technical journals and he would reciprocate with cultural artifacts from Bulgaria. On occasion, I also sent him some literary magazines He always wanted to improve his English, which I always told him was quite good and in fact much better than my Bulgarian. His basic kindness was again shown as he sent me Bulgarian postage stamps after finding out about a young friend of mine who collects stamps. Ivan was particularly proud of his country. He recog