I would very much like to make some important comments about how Adriano Garsia made it possible for me, even after solving and writing-up my Ph.D. thesis between June of my first year of Graduate School, and mid Fall quarter of my second year, to be allowed by the rules in place at UCSD,to complete my thesis work BEFORE taking all the other subsequent graduate courses and passing all the qualifying exams. Adriano Garsia was the professor of my first year graduate analysis course,invited me into his advanced seminar at the end of my first year, recognized my above work immediately, became my official Ph.D. advisor over that first Summer, and ``had my back'' the rest of my graduate school time at UCSD. He supported me by an NSF (usually for faculty) Research Assistant grant much of my third and forth years of graduate School. And, he made sure that I was allowed to graduate.
His direct support and letter of recommendation was very important in my being offered and taking the J. Willard Gibbs Instructor, Yale University, 1976-1978. In a 1-28-2025 email to me, Doron had three questions of me. Do I have a copy of the check that George Andrews sent me (and, the other half to Adriano Garsia), as his prize for the first combinatorial (really bijective) proof of the Rogers-Ramanujan Identities? And, next, how much was it for? I could not locate a copy of my check from George Andrews, but it was for fifty dollars. The third, and most important, question was: ``Who came first with the idea of the Involution Principle, Garsia or you? Ot it came together?''. First, my concise answer: Both Adriano Garsia and Stephen Milne made significant and material contributions to the discovery, derivation, proof, and application of the ``Garsia-Milne Involution Principle''. So, it's name is appropriate. After receiving Doron's 1-28-2025 email, I spent a lot of time, over about 10 days, going through all my many files and records of all kinds, (I fortunately saved them all), from the period 1968 through 1983, to organize them, (I still need to pdf scan them), to tell the complete story and time-line of the creation of the ``Garsia-Milne Involution Principle''.