Gallieno Denardo, who has been associated with ICTP since the 1980s, died suddenly yesterday. With him, ICTP loses one of its most loyal and active friends. Denardo was instrumental in establishing and running all ICTP activities on optics, including the Laboratory, the schools and workshops, and the ICO/ICTP Award. He headed the Office of External Activities for 10 years, and was Acting Administrative Director for more than a year in 2002-2003. With his great creativity and dedication to work, he helped establish and run other numerous programmes—among them, the Sandwich Training Educational Programme (STEP) in collaboration with the IAEA. Ever amiable and cheerful, he will be sorely missed.