From the Bowdoin College obituary for professor of mathematics Steve Fisk, who died at the age of 63:
Fisk’s love for mathematics… continued to the very end of his life.
“He was a person who loved mathematics more than anybody I know,” said [a colleague]. “And I know a lot of mathematicians.”
When [this colleague] visited Fisk at the Gosnell Memorial Hospice House in Scarborough, Maine on Friday afternoon, Fisk asked [him] for a particular math book called “Roots to Research.”
“I came back and I tried to get a copy—I didn’t have one myself, and couldn’t find any copy anywhere. Amazon could send it, but it wouldn’t arrive until Monday, and I sensed that was too late.” …
Instead, [he] called Visiting Lecturer in Mathematics Leon Harkleroad, who drove two hours from Brunswick to deliver the book early Saturday morning.
“Steve did read from it that day,” [he said]. “His wife told me later that he actually had left it bookmarked on the fourth or fifth page, where the authors describe the concept of length of game.”
Fisk’s obituary, written by his family, considers the concept of length of game symbolically.
“While Steve’s length of game may have been shorter than most of us would wish, the numbers he chose along the way gave him—and all of us—great joy,” it reads.