For all those COMMON old-timers

The really old ones, I mean.



It is with sadness that I report that Bruce Drake passed away on Monday,
from complications of his diabetes condition.



Old-timers will remember Bruce as a leader of the old registration and IT
groups, without which the old-fashioned conferences could not have been
held. Those were the days when IBM would ship a bunch of equipment from
Rochester for each conference. Those pieces of equipment contained far more
white sheet metal than black plastic, and frequently had 8 inch diskette
drives. Instead of PC's and laptops (neither had been invented), we used
Model 5251 terminals, which weighed in at a featherweight 79 pounds. Each
terminal was shipped in its own foam rubber padded case on wheels. We
thought we were in high cotton when IBM came out with the lighter,
plastic-chassis CRT's.



One of the requirements of being on those teams back in the day was the
ability to string a couple of miles of twin-ax cables, and to be able to
install and/or repair those wonderful twin-ax connectors without burning
oneself with the soldering iron needed for securing the pins inside the
connector.



Those of us on the teams truly enjoyed the conferences in Southern cities
like Atlanta, New Orleans, and San Antonio, because Bruce and his cohort,
Keith Thrash would drive from their homes in Birmingham, Alabama to those
conferences. They tossed a couple of big coolers in the back of the truck
and make a stop at Dreamland, a barbecue place out in the woods outside of
Birmingham. When they arrived on site, the setup work would stop and we'd
chow down on baby back ribs and cornbread. When the coolers were empty, it
was back to work. It was not uncommon to find a smear of barbecue sauce on
one of those nice, white machines.



Bruce was a true Southern gentleman, and he will be sorely missed. He is
survived by his wife Jean and his son Michael. He was preceded in death by
his son Tim. Both Michael and Tim tagged along with Jean to some of the
conferences, and they all pitched in to help. Bruce and Jean also have
several grandchildren.



RIP, my friend.



Paul Nelson

Home 971-324-0094

Cell 708-670-6978

<mailto:nelsonp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> nelsonp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx



"Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem."