A festive group of ∼150 current and former students, postdoctoral and other associates, and colleagues gathered during the weekend of April 12-14, 2013 to celebrate Joe Gall's 85th birthday. The gathering, hosted by the Carnegie Institution for Science, Department of Embryology (Allan Spradling, Director) and organized by a group of Joe's current and former students (Zehra Nizami, Alison Singer, Ji-Long Liu, Virginia Zakian, Susan Gerbi), was held in Baltimore, MD. Dinners and symposia extending over 3 days celebrated Joe's scientific findings over the years, together with those of his former students, postdoctoral fellows, and other associates (see program at https://sites.google.com/site/gallsymposium2013/ ).