Bruce Brenn - When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

On 23 June 2022 I attended in Portland, OR the celebration of Bruce Brenn's larger than life life. Randy, Darby and Jay were just tots when Margaret and I knew them in Calcutta, 1973. Bruce was an inflection point, one of nine, in my life. Bruce was my boss at Citibank Calcutta, India, 1973. Bruce orchestrated, with me as his "gal Friday (Sr. Operations Officer)," the taming of the renowned Kanjilal (union leader) and the Citibank All-India Bank Employees Union. Bruce: Oregon Ducks Rose Bowl player. Phi Betta Kappa University of Oregon. Played tennis with then Crown Prince, now Emperor, Akihito. Ended career as head Nike Japan. Retired to Portland where he was influential in various Japan/Portland partnerships. Mench covers it. Also, the three kids are proof of excellent parental performance. I was asked by Randy Brenn to speak. In my remarks I depicted Bruce with three words: character, courage, and principled. Cindy, a victim of Alzheimer's, lives in a Portland, OR nursing home. Cindy was not present at the service.

Tom Crouse, who joined the bank with Bruce, circa 1968, gave some special reminiscences of his experiences with Bruce and Cindy. Tom and Kay had flown in from New Hampshire to attend the service. They indicated their intent to visit the Mike Giles and the Bill Taylors on their West Coast trip.

1973. Bruce's boss, Citibank India Country Head, Ham Meserve, and International Banking Group, Division Five Head, Carlton Stewart had given Bruce the green light to take on the bank union... this at a time, in Communist run West Bengal, when unions were strong and ascendant. The trigger for Bruce's action was noncompliance with a work instruction by one of the employees. Bruce/Citi took legal action against the union. For a three-month period, the union retaliated with lightning strikes and raucous demonstrations on the bank premises. Two hundred union employees walked out all together for a period of two weeks during which period twenty or so highly talented local officers ran all the functions of the bank. Bruce and I each left for new assignments before the case was eventually resolved in 1975 at Calcutta City Civil Court in the bank's favor.