Gene's mentoring and scientific approach have had a strong influence on many people in our field. In this talk, I will give my perspective on Gene's mentoring and how he has served as a role model for me in my career, beginning with his guidance on my dissertation. During my Ph.D. research, Gene's expectations of careful analysis and clear communication, as well as his attention to detail and sometimes astonishing breadth of knowledge, defined a high mark that continues to be my gold standard. Equally important, his own work amply demonstrated those qualities and has served as a touchstone and exemplar for my own efforts. Gene's emphasis on observational analysis and his ability to extract the key features of a phenomenon from a confusing mass of information and to then clearly summarize the results – and the transformative effect this can have on a field of enquiry – has been one of my primary inspirations in the field. As funding for observations, particularly continuation of long-term stations, becomes more uncertain and as research programs reasonably focus more and more on complex modeling, I hope the example of Gene's seminal observational work will also continue to inform our funding priorities.