On January 18, 1973, S. Smith Stevens, Professor of Psychophysics at Harvard University, died at the age of 66. A last‐minute change was made in the program of the 85th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America to include a session in Stevens's honor. The texts of the four papers outlining Stevens's contributions to science as researcher, philosopher, and educator are published here. The April 1973 issue of this journal contains an obituary by Hallowell Davis that tells more about Stevens's life.Provost Walter A. Rosenblith of the Massachuseits Institute of Technology served as Chairman of the session. His opening and closing remarks are presented in the following paragraphs.