It is with great sadness that this publication announce that Dr. Richard (Dick) Schmidt passed away on Wednesday, Mar 15, 2017. In addition to being an internationally-renowned applied linguist, Schmidt was a central figure in the founding and success of Language Learning & Technology. He worked collaboratively to make LLT what it is today. Schmidt's career spanned three fields: international service, linguistics, and second language acquisition. After receiving his BA in Social Relations at Harvard University in 1963, he worked as a US Foreign Service officer and director of the J. F. Kennedy Cultural Center & Library in Beirut from 1965 to 1969. He then returned to Brown University where he received MA (1971) and PhD (1974) degrees in linguistics, focusing on the sociolinguistics of Arabic. In 1976, he took a faculty position in the Department of English as a Second Language at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, where he remained until 2011.