In academia, it is common to do conferences in honor of a major figure’s 60th/70th/80th birthday, and/or a festschrift (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festschrif

In academia, it is common to do conferences in honor of a major figure’s 60th/70th/80th birthday, and/or a festschrift (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festschrift https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festschrift). There’s typically serious work done there, but also a lot talk about they’ve influenced the field, as well as just general reminiscing. You might, for instance, mention the fact that the honored figure once reported his own car stolen because he couldn’t find it, then later found it and got pulled over for driving a stolen vehicle.