1. Let n given points have the property that the straight line joining any two of them passes through a third point of the set. Show that the n points lie on a straight line.
   
   
2. Given n points which do not all lie on the same straight line, prove that if we join every two of them we obtain at least n distinct straight lines.

I still remember fondly how this "publication" came into being. I was taking a class in projective geometry at the University of Toronto at the time. It was being taught by Professor H S M Coxeter who seemed to have a never-ending supply of interesting problems. One of these was to show that if finitely many points in the real projective plane have the property that the line through two of them always contains a third then there exists a line containing all of them. I solved it and showed my solution to Professor Coxeter. He was obviously delighted with it and asked my permission to type it up and send it in to the 'Monthly', where, it turned out, the problem had come from, and I of course agreed. I had not heard of the 'Monthly' until then, but soon after I began sending in solutions on my own.

Let O be the midpoint of a chord AB of a circle, and let CD, EF be any two other chords through O. Prove synthetically that CE and DF meet AB in points equidistant from O.

This paper is a result of an investigation into general methods of determining the irreducible characters of $GL(n, q)$, the group of all non-singular linear substitutions with marks in $GF(q)$, and of the related groups, $SL(n, q), PGL(n, q), PSL(n, q)$, the corresponding group of determinant unity, projective group, projective group of determinant unity, respectively.

Given a semisimple algebraic group G, we ask: how are the elements of G partitioned into conjugacy classes and how do these classes fit together to form G? The answers to these questions not only throw light on the algebraic and topological structure of G, but are important for the representation theory and functional analysis of G; conversely, of course, we can expect the representations and functions on G to contribute to the answers to the questions. In what follows, we discuss some aspects of these questions, present some known results, and pose some unsolved problems.

Robert Steinberg spent a sabbatical at Yale University during the 1967-68 academic year and gave a course on Chevalley groups. There were two note-takers in the course (John Faulkner and Robert Wilson), and Steinberg wrote up his lectures based on the notes. These notes were then mimeographed and circulated among group theorists and others for decades. Steinberg kept a record of some minor alterations, but never published the notes officially. Finally, after his death on his 92nd birthday in 2012, a revised version was prepared (supervised by Steinberg's nephew, Robert Snapp, a physicist at the University of Vermont) which included these changes. They also incorporated some small remarks by various mathematicians and some footnotes that had appeared in the Russian edition of the notes. The American Mathematical Society (AMS) has now republished the notes, making them readily available to a new generation of group theorists.

The following is the substance of a set of lectures given at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research during November and December of 1972. ... It is a pleasure to thank my colleagues at the Tata Institute, young and old, for their hospitality and friendship to my wife and me during our visit and for their stimulating influence on my talks. It is a special pleasure to be able to thank here Shri Vinay V Deodhar who in addition has written up these notes.

Robert and Maria Steinberg led a simple life, and their house was always open for countless mathematicians and friends. I myself joined UCLA in 1965 and my wife Veda and I became very good friends of theirs, especially because of the closeness of my mathematical interests with his, and the proximity of our homes. We were fortunate to go to the lunches Maria arranged on Easter Sundays. Bob and Maria were avid hikers and liked to go camping in the Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks, almost annually. His was a gentle personality, full of humour and good sense, and he and Maria were an inseparable unit, almost like two quarks. They made generous gifts to the AMS and were members of the President's Associates of the AMS. ...

When Maria passed away last year it was a cruel blow to Bob. In the last few months after she passed away I drew closer to him and visited him once every two weeks or so, discussing many things. I like to believe that these visits were pleasant and enjoyable to him.

The quotation "He touched nothing that he did not adorn" is by Samuel Johnson, writing about his friend Oliver Goldsmith. I think it is the most satisfying way to describe the work and legacy of Robert Steinberg, who passed away on 25 May 2014 on his 92nd birthday. His towering stature as one of the great masters of the theory of algebraic groups and finite groups, the vast scope, depth, and beauty of his papers (some key ones were published in the Pacific Journal of Mathematics), and his gigantic presence in the algebraic scene in Southern California, are the reasons that led the Board of Governors of the Pacific Journal of Mathematics (PJM) to request that a special volume of the PJM be published in his memory. In this brief essay I shall try to sketch a portrait of a master who wore his mantle of greatness with unassuming simplicity and charm.

This is a melancholy task for me, to write about someone who was a good friend and role model for me for nearly fifty years. In these days of ever multiplying awards, million dollar grants, medals, and so on, it is refreshing, even humbling, to talk about a man who never sought the limelight, who worked quietly on the problems that appealed to him, and evolved into one of the great masters and innovators of the theory of semisimple algebraic groups. The problems he worked on and considered important became the central problems of the subject. His influence on the subject was enormous. Even after he retired he could surprise experts with new and easier proofs of some of the fundamental theorems of the subject. His monumental set of lecture notes on Chevalley groups [1968] has been studied by hundreds of mathematicians (I myself lectured twice on them) and will appear as a publication of the AMS. In spite of his greatness he was a gentle and modest man, aware of his gifts certainly, but accepting them and trying to get the job done.

Steinberg's work ... is astonishing in its scope, depth, and beauty. His profound insights about semisimple groups, and the easy grace and charm of his personality, cannot ever be forgotten by people who came into contact with him. I have known very few like him.