[todd8]

I had one famous professor, Gian-Carlo Rota, whose office was covered in stacks of books and journals; I believe that he was an editor of an AMS publication at the time. The next year I had a professor for a class in non-commutative ring theory (I sadly can't remember his name off the top of my head; I do remember that he was a pleasant and brilliant person.), his office was like a monk's room. There was a desk upon which rested a single sheet of paper with a yellow wooden pencil.