Bob saw everything around him in terms of its future, its possibilities. He was an envisioner and an inventor. I knew that when he started a sentence with, "This may sound crazy but ...", that I was about to hear not just an inventive solution to a tough problem, but one that would likely endure for 50 years and become a new standard in the field.
In his professional and personal lives, Bob was one of the most doggedly persistent people I have known. Once Bob set his mind and heart on an objective, he would do "whatever it takes" to attain it.
Most memorable to was his recovery from double-knee replacement surgery about 10 years ago. Despite the pain, Bob persisted with his therapy and, within a year, was back camping, hiking, and riding a horse with his son in Wyoming. That was the goal he set for himself and he would not be denied.
That was Bob Fenn to me: perspective, proportion, passion, possibility, and persistence.
Socially, Bob was among the most progressive thinkers I have known. National health care? Long overdue. Abortion and same-sex marriage? None of the government's business. Prostitution and drugs? Legalize, regulate, and tax them just as we do with tobacco, alcohol, and firearms. Deregulation? No way ... you can never trust people with a profit motive to do the right thing. Religion in government? Never, and tax the churches while we're at it. And he was an environmentalist before it was fashionable.
Bob was an iconoclast in the best sense. He delighted in bursting bubbles, puncturing puffery, and skewering sacred cows. Notions he could not abide were, "We've always done it this way" and, "That's impossible." For Bob, everything was possible.
Among the corporate mementos in his office was a brass nail encased in an acrylic block. Embedded with the nail was a brass plate that read, "Let's Build Something Together." Bob Fenn was a builder. The world he helped build is better because he was in it. And I am a better person for having known him.
Bob's wife, three adult children, and several grandchildren survive him. In keeping with his adventurous spirit and communion with nature, Bob's ashes will be scattered in a wilderness area near Grand Teton National Park in June.
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