It was in 1982, in the second year of my Presidency, that the Board of Directors of the newly formed CSNA (having just been incorporated as the successor organization to the former North American Branch of the British-based Classification Society) passed a resolution supporting publication of the journal that is now the Journal of Classification.

Joe Kruskal and I were appointed as an ad hoc committee of two commissioned to search for an Editor for this new journal. After discussions with numerous colleagues, including Bob Sokal, Jim Rohlf, John Hartigan and Larry Hubert among many others, Joe and I decided that Phipps would be the best possible candidate for Editor of this journal. We approached him about this, and he was immediately enthusiastic about undertaking this awesome responsibility.

Phipps and I then proceeded to explore the question of finding a suitable publisher and negotiating a contract for publication of this new journal. Phipps was very much the prime mover, my role being to provide support and occasional advice. He contacted a number of publishers, and arranged contacts with representatives of the most promising. Phipps was particularly impressed with Springer-Verlag, and especially with Walter Kaufman-Buhler, who was then in charge of publication of mathematics journals for Springer. He and I met with Walter, at which time it became very clear to both of us that Springer was by far the best publisher with which to deal.

After considering a number of names, we eventually settled on Journal of Classification, as the simplest and most straightforward alternative. One very important condition that Phipps insisted on, much to the advantage, I believe, of CSNA, was that our Society should own the name of the journal. Phipps insisted on this condition based on the experience of Societies sponsoring other journals, especially that of the Society for Mathematical Psychology with the Journal of Mathematical Psychology. The fact that the ownership of that Journal's name was retained by the publisher (Academic Press) left SMP almost completely powerless to negotiate with other publishers, or to take on the publication of the journal itself.

CSNA's ownership of the name Journal of Classification has, on the other hand, given us the option of easily dealing with an alternative publisher if we want to, or even of publishing the journal ourselves. While, despite the unfortunate death of Walter Kaufman-Buhler a number of years ago, we have maintained a relationship with Springer-Verlag, the very fact that we COULD, if we wanted to, sever this relationship without losing control of the Journal's name, or Editorial control over its contents, has been very much to our advantage over the years.

Since CSNA had very few resources at the time for supporting the publication of J.o.C., Phipps, together with Lynn Bilger at the University of Illinois, took on virtual full responsibility for the publication of the journal. While most journal Editors have one or more copyeditors, as well as a business manager and secretarial support, Phipps took on essentially all the tasks involved in publishing J.o.C. almost entirely on his own. To keep the costs of publication to a minimum, the word processing was done for most of the years of his Editorship by Lynn Bilger at the University of Illinois, under Phipps's close supervision.

The publication of the Journal of Classification has been very much a labor of love on Phipps's part. Without his determination to make it the finest journal in its field, I don't believe J.o.C. would be the journal our Society can be so proud to be associated with today. It remains one of the most highly cited journals of applied mathematics to this day-- despite the fact that, at his insistence, we publish only two issues per year. Phipps has insisted on limiting the number of issues per year on the grounds that he prefers to limit J.o.C. only to the highest quality papers, rather than publishing lower quality papers just to fill more pages. His insistence on such strong quality control has kept the number of issues down, but has maintained the very high quality that has made it, I believe, the best extant publication dealing with classification theory and methodology. I am quite confident that this record of high quality will be continued under the Editorship of Willem Heiser. With more support (financial and otherwise) from our Society, Willem may even be able to increase the number of pages published per year somewhat without sacrificing the very high standards of quality Phipps has established-- but this remains to be seen.

I feel we all owe Phipps an enormous vote of gratitude for his Herculean efforts over these last 18 years in almost single-handedly producing the Journal of Classification. Without his dedication, intelligence, and the interminable hours he has devoted to this effort, I don't believe the Journal our Society publishes would have even been viable, much less have attained the reputation and status it has, and I expect it will continue to have for years to come-- that of being by far the best publication in its field!