Eric Jenett

Jenett
Eric Jenett died October 20, 2011 at the age of 88 after a lifetime of being a great dad to his two sons Bruce and Jon, loving husband to his first wife of 59 years Dorothy (mother of Bruce and Jon, and who predeceased him in2003), and loving husband to his wife Jeanne, who brought so much fun, love, and caring to his later years. He will also be remembered with fondness by many in the engineering and business world where he mentored and guided people in the arts of project management and life in general. Mr. Jenett was born August 11, 1923 in Yonkers, New York. He served as an officer in the Army Air Corps in WW II. After earning his Master's Degree in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University, Mr. Jenett spent the majority of his career with Brown & Root Corporation, now Kellogg, Brown& Root in Houston. He retired in 1989 as Corporate Vice President having spent over 55 years working in project environments. He was a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers for over 40 years and was a registered engineer in Texas until his retirement. During his career, Mr. Jenett had primary project management responsibility for a wide variety of major chemical engineering projects in the US and abroad, including Europe, Iraq and Egypt. He was proud of the fact that he had started, executed and closed out every project on which he had management responsibilities. Mr. Jenett's knowledge was not limited to the technical; he was widely recognized and respected for his keen awareness of the human aspects of project management. He wrote and lectured on both technical and project management topics and authored over 20 professional papers and handbook contributions. Only partially in jest, Mr. Jenett once described his lifetime goal and guiding principle as being: "to hunt down and eradicate the existence, acceptance and practice of the project management paradigm that says, in effect; 'the project manager operates to solve the problems of today by tomorrow, applying the techniques of yesterday.'"
Mr. Jenett was one of the founders of the Project Management Institute, the largest and oldest professional accreditation organization for project managers and is listed as member number 3. PMI now numbers over 150,000 professional members worldwide. He was PMI President in 1971, Chairman of the PMI Board of Directors in 1972, and PMI Secretary during 1975-76. He was also instrumental in founding the Houston Chapter of PMI, the first ever established and served as both President and Chair. He also helped organize PMI's first regional seminar in 1976, which evolved into the annual PMI Seminar/Symposium and present day PMI Global Congresses. He was honored by PMI with a Distinguished Contribution award and a designation as a PMI Fellow. PMI's "Eric Jenett Project Management Excellence Award" is presented in his honor annually.
Mr. Jenett was a very active member of the Brown & Root Retirees Association (BRRA), having served as President numerous times and was to be the 2012 President. He took great pleasure in maintaining friendships with fellow retirees at numerous events.
Mr. Jenett had lived at Clarewood House Retirement Community in Houston since 2001 and was a very active member of the community there. He often expressed his deep appreciation and warm feelings for Clarewood House, his neighbors and the employees he encountered there. He is survived by his loving wife Jeanne, his sons Bruce and Jon and their wives Nola E. Masterson and Molly D. Jenett and his grandchildren Willoughby, Benjamin, Kelly Jenett (Noack), Meredyth Masterson and Jaime Jenett and her partner Laura Fitch, and one great-grandchild, Simon Lev Fitch-Jenett. In addition Mr. Jenett leaves a large and loving extended family and an eclectic group of friends and colleagues. Mr. Jenett enjoyed a very full and rewarding life largely because of his loving family and friends and his keen interest in people.
A Memorial Service Celebrating Mr. Jenett's life will be held in The Chapel at Clarewood House on Friday, November 11 at 11 AM with Chaplain Thomas Hill officiating. Memorial contributions may be made to the Clarewood House Charitable Trust for Resident Assistance, 7400 Clarewood Drive, Houston, Texas 77036.