In this article David Gabbard describes his first meeting with McLaren and his wife in 1989. Gabbard notes that although he had read some of McLaren's work, particularly some of his early collaborations with Henry Giroux, who had helped bring McLaren to Miami from Canada, no amount of reading, could have prepared him for meeting McLaren face-to-face. Gabbard grew to know McLaren over a friendship lasting many years, and Gabbard writes here that his trust and esteem for McLaren's immediacy as part of the more general passion with which he lives his life grew. It's the same passion unmistakably reflected in McLaren's writings, and the same passion that generates such tremendous shared loyalty and bonds of solidarity between himself, his students, and others who work with him. Over a career that, spans just two and a half decades, McLaren has authored or co-authored more than 25 books, edited or co-edited 15 others, authored or coauthored over 100 chapters and more than 150 articles in scholarly journals. McLaren's career is profiled here.