In the first years of this century, the mathematics community was gearing up for Leonhard Euler's tercentenary. I see the official kick-off as being a special session sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) at the 2001 Joint Mathematics Meeting called “Mathematics in the Age of Euler,” organized by William Dunham and V. Frederick Rickey. At the same meeting, The Euler Society was first conceived of; it would come into existence the next year and begin holding annual meetings devoted to Euler studies. As 2007 approached, the MAA planned a special five-volume book series called The MAA Tercentenary Euler Celebration. The MAA invited the Euler Society to make the 2007 MathFest in San Jose, CA, a joint meeting of the two societies. MathFest was the climax of the tercentenary celebrations, featuring a plenary address from Bill Dunham, the official release of the last two volumes of the Tercentenary book series, and a presentation of a copy of the entire series to the Swiss consul, who traveled from the consulate in San Francisco to be a part of the celebration.

Ed Sandifer was the driving force behind much of this activity. I first met Ed in 1999, when he spoke at my university in the Pohle Colloquium on the History of Mathematics on—who else?—Leonhard Euler. Even though the big anniversary was still eight years off, Ed had already begun travelling the country, sharing the excitement of reading Euler in the original, and encouraging faculty and students alike to translate Euler's many papers and books into English.

Two years later, at the Joint Mathematics Meeting in New Orleans, Ed discussed the formation of an academic society devoted to Euler, his work, and his intellectual community, with Ronald Calinger and John Glaus. And so the Euler Society was born. Ed served as the secretary of the society from its inception until long after the tercentenary celebrations. As secretary, he tirelessly recruited members, promoted the society's annual meetings and made proceedings available in electronic form.