On December 18th, 2011, Václav Havel passed away at the age of 75. Václav Havel was a writer, dissident, and politician from Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic. He was first appointed leader of Czechoslovakia in 1989 and was the first democratically elected president of the country after the end of the Communist era. Havel is widely celebrated for successfully and peacefully overthrowing the communist regime and ushering in an era of freedom and democracy in former Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic. Havel was an influential figure in Central and Eastern European politics for more than two decades. He was a proponent of civil society, human rights, democracy, and freedom, and worked to create a “United Europe.” His legacy of peaceful revolution and democracy will remain as an inspiration to future generations of people in the region. Václav Havel is survived by his wife, Dagmar Veskrnova, as well as his two children, Václav Havel, Jr., and Veronika Švehlova. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.