On January 17, 2004, our friend and colleague, Jim Townsend, died peacefully in the midst of his family after a long illness. For many years a leading figure among China scholars, Jim received his Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley in 1965. He was a member of the political science department at Berkeley between 1963 and 1968 when he moved to the University of Washington. He remained at the University of Washington until he retired prematurely in 1992 after a diagnosis of prostate cancer. Defying the odds, he continued to live a happy and productive life for more than a decade after his retirement, a decade during which he saw his beloved wife Sandy Perry through her own losing battle with breast cancer.