CLYDE BRUCE MACKENZIE

1924 - 2016

MacKENZIE, Clyde Bruce Born in Taunton, Massachusetts, July 3, 1924, to Clyde Cameron and Margaret MacKenzie (Traynor), he summered in Orleans on neighboring Cape Cod, moving to Providence for education at the old Hope High School and won a competitive appointment to West Point from Senator Theodore F. Green. He married his college sweetheart, Dorothy Ravizza, under swords in the chapel upon graduation and went on to create a life with her and their three children: Eiric, Pia, and Ian, who followed him around the world with little complaint. He was loved by his children for his imagination, his story telling, and the great sense of fun he brought to life. He was an adventurer and explorer of old abandoned house always on the lookout for an original piece of antique hardware to scavenge. After West Point he served four years assembling and flying nuclear weapons out of Sandia Base with the AFSWP (Armed Forces Special Weapons Project). While there, he picked up a Masters in German and another in French at the University of New Mexico. He spent three years teaching French at West Point but left in 1954 to join Bell Labs, as scientific editor. A bit later, he joined IBM to start its IBM Journal of Research & Development, then, back to Paris as IBM World Trade Director of Communications for Europe, Middle East, and Africa. In 1962, he got a surprise invitation from U.S. Peace Corps Director Sargent Shriver to head one of the first francophone Peace Corps projects in the Ivory Coast, Niger, and Senegal. After a brief stint back in the States the family was off to Paris for three years back with IBM, living high at the Place des Vosges and the Ile de la Cite right at the peak of the trentes glorieuses. After years of consulting internationally, he became a partner at the Corporate Intelligence Group, where he continued to produce international economic and political insights — well into his eighties for clients including various fund managers at firms such as Fidelity Investments. He is survived by his three children, six grandchildren — Noah Clarke, Alex Gaston, Zoe Vrabel, and Wyatt, Calum, and Adric MacKenzie — and two great-grandchildren, Alba and Claudia Clarke. His only sibling, Harriet MacKenzie predeceased him. Memorial services will be held at 1pm on November 18th at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Orleans.

View the online memorial for Clyde Bruce MacKENZIE