Did You Hear Bruce Jenkins Died?

I get the sad “news” that Bruce Jenkins died from an editor friend – who might have been making sure I had not done the same. Bruce passed away over a year ago, I hear to my surprise. He was 61.

I used to hear about industry people’s passages while they were still current. But we don’t see each on the conference and trade show circuit anymore. Thanks, COVID.

The late Bruce Jenkins (right) with Tom Greaves outside their Cambridge, Mass. office circa 1990. (Picture by Karen Nord, courtesy of LinkedIn)

Every CAD insider knew Bruce. Every one remembers the first time they met Bruce. I met Bruce early in my career of covering the CAD industry. We were at a Daratech conference in Boston. Daratech was where the Who's Who of the industry converged. Bruce was the brains behind Daratech although Charles Foundyller took the spotlight. The year I met Bruce, Computervision (CV) was on the decline and PTC was on the rise. But PTC was not content to lead the way in MCAD. Steve Walske, CEO of PTC, was to announce his company was not a CAD company but a PLM company. That  made for a loud buzz.

At that time, Intergraph, McDonnel Douglas Unigraphics, DEC, Cadence… others were the big players. Most of them had their CEOs at Daratech and all of them wanted the spotlight to move from Walske to them. The conference  hall strained to contain the big egos.

It was very important to be seen at Daratech. Bruce had been able to create an aura around the conference that attracted all the VIPs. If you weren’t at Daratech, you weren’t important. The investors and media would not notice you. You paid Daratech handsomely for the privilege of attending.

How would a newbie on the circuit get an interview with CAD royalty, I asked. They pointed to Bruce. It was apparent that Bruce was the gatekeeper and if you couldn’t get past Bruce, you weren’t going to get your story. Bruce was standing between several CAD big shots, all talking at once, all towering over him. Bruce was holding his own, looking cool, nodding. He was always immaculate in dress and diction, in a very New England kind of way. I approached warily, feeling intimidated, out of my depth. When I finally garnered the courage to break in and introduce myself, Bruce looked at me with a raised eyebrow, saying without words, “Who are you, again? You are with which magazine? Why should I talk to you?”

Over the course of the next 30 years we got to know each other a little better. We ended up knowing all the same people -- over 508 mutual connections on LinkedIn. Bruce would leave Daratech to start Spar Point Research with Tom Greaves and then start Ora Research by himself. Ora Research, specialized in the emerging technology of the day, far 3D laser scanning. The industry conferences had had their time. Smaller, agile CAD companies took over from the lumbering CAD behemoths and they favored trade shows over conferences. 

I never to know Bruce really. Not as a human being. My loss. We never shared a dinner or a drink. A shame. I find out after Tom Greaves' tribute what I had missed. Bruce was a man of letters, a product of Yale, from where he graduated summa cum laude, a degree in English literature. I would have asked him what possible interest would someone who could recite poetry from memory have in CAD or engineering. I did not know his husband and partner of 15 years. Or that he liked billowy white shirts like a pirate – and could curse like one.

The engineering and design software world has always suffered from being dry, humorless, straight laced and far too serious. Without Bruce, it seem even duller. 

Comments

[Charles Foundyller]

I loved Bruce like a father loves his son. When he came to my home in response to an ad I had placed he said he needed a job desperately, so I took him in and began teaching him about CAD/CAM and CAE. Bruce had a talent for taking my writings and translating them into readable convincing pros. In the end, he and Tom left Daratech and with the conference ideas I had invented tried to make it on their own. Some blamed me for holding Bruce back from a carrier in literature where his talents would truly shine. Perhaps I did.

I loved Bruce like the son Dara and I didn't have. I'm sorry he's gone.

By the way. Bruce knew no Russian poetry. That was someone else entirely.

[Ralph Grabowski]

UpFront.eZine reported on his unfortunate passing in March:
https://www.upfrontezine.com/2021/03/upf-1087.html