The delightful eccentric Donald Shoup was our UCLA professor and intellectual coach for our incoming class of Urban Planning Masters students in the early 2000s. He made everything seem so simple and obvious and when he asked me to be his research assistant, I jumped at the chance to study his technique of framing complex issues in a way that made his solutions seem inevitable. I treasure those afternoons I was paid to take dictation for his book or read portions back so he could refine the way they bounced around the argument, and at every opportunity he clarified principles for me, basically training me to see the gnarled mess of cities as rational economic choices. I went into Urban Planning thinking like designer Frederick Law Olmstead and left knowing that the simple act of where you park cars, how much you charge, and what inane rules are enforced -- those arbitrary codes shaped your city far more than any architect or designer could! Don Shoup was our jovial grandmaster and I soon discovered he'd hired legions of students to help with his book -- and personally teach them through his lighthearted questioning -- inviting us to dinner parties at his house, attending our raucous beer parties on the roof, and becoming a lifelong friend. There will never be another quite so persuasive and charming as the "World's Greatest Expert" on parking... and how to think about complex problems, large and small. He was a beacon to hundreds and thousands.