Roger Ebert was a writer who really understood and appreciated the amazing and probably endless variety of experiences which could be expressed through the medium of film. Because of that understanding, he approached each movie on its own terms. My favorite review of his was for "The Devil's Rejects"- which he called "a gaudy vomitorium of a movie, violent, nauseating and really a pretty good example of its genre" in his three-star review. What I admired was how he appreciated (and respected) who the audience for the movie actually is and how he viewed it from their perspective, even if it wasn't necessarily his own.
That's the sign of a professional. That he could be entertaining and enlightening while doing it marked him as an artist in his own right. He will be fondly remembered.