Together Dr. S. Mažeika Patricio Sulliván and I studied wilderness fire effects on stream-riparian ecosystems in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in central Idaho and Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada of California. We described the influence of fire on riparian vegetation, sediments, stream channel morphology, and water chemistry as well as ecosystem-level responses to fire including inputs of leaf litter and terrestrial invertebrates to streams and trophic responses of riparian spiders and songbirds. The combined results of our studies indicate that fire occurring in wilderness ecosystems of central Idaho and Yosemite National Park exert context-dependent influences on stream-riparian ecosystems that lead to potentially beneficial landscape-level heterogeneity in stream-riparian ecosystem structure and function. Dr. Sulliván and I have authored six journal articles, six scholarly presentations, and one book chapter together, and he advised me through both a master's degree and a PhD, but the impact of his mentoring overshadows these achievements. Mažeika's belief in me gave me a sense of belonging in ecology and academia.