Through the use of a system-building approach, an approach that includes finding common ground for the various philosophical paradigms within statistics, Erich L. Lehmann is responsible for much of the synthesis of classical statistical knowledge that developed from the Neyman--Pearson--Wald school. A biographical sketch and a brief summary of some of his many contributions are presented here. His complete bibliography is also included and the references present many other sources of information on his life and his work.