100 “standard” mathematicians combined. Bill Thurston was certainly one of them.
the same sentiment certainly also applies to Bill Thurston.
When I was a graduate student at Cornell, Bill was very nice to me, he provided financial support to me for several years so that I could focus on my research. He even bought a software for me, since I mentioned that it’s expensive.
He never lost his patience because of my slow understanding his ideas, and he was always very happy if I made some progress on my research. I remember when I told him the details about geometric flow, he could know immediately by his surprising geometric intuition if I made mistake at somewhere.
Many years ago, when my wife visited me in the lounge of Malott Hall during the lunch time, he came to us and talk with us. He also showed us his new iphone (he was an Apple fan) and he also told us that he came to campus by bicycle.
My wife and I feel very sorrowful about Bill’s pass away. Wish him rest in peace.
Rest in peace. One of the good ones, from what I read.