The purpose of this paper is to remember as many good qualities of our friend Karl Canter as I can, as an antidote to the loss of such a magnanimous, generous, inventive and amusing person. The paper endeavours to distill the essence in simple terms of some of Karl's important scientific contributions and say what I know of how these accomplishments were made possible and molded by his various character traits, illustrated with the few anecdotes that I remember. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.