Christopher Heyde was born in Sydney on 20 April 1939. In 1961 began his PhD work in the Department of Statistics at the Australian National University and awarded his PhD in statistics in 1965. Heyde then worked as a lecturer in the Department of Statistics at Michigan State University and later the University of Manchester in 1967. He returned to Australia in 1968 to take up a Readership in the Department of Statistics, School of General Studies at the ANU. In January 1975, he joined the CSIRO Division of Mathematics and Statistics, and was appointed professor and chair of the Department of Statistics at the University of Melbourne. Heyde was Professor and Head of the Department of Statistics, Institute of Advanced Studies at the ANU from July 1986-December 1988; Foundation Dean of the ANU School of Mathematical Sciences 1989-1992; Professor, Department of Statistics at Columbia University 1993-2007. Heyde died on 6 March 2008 in Canberra.