Norman-Bodek-Obituary

Norman Bodek

Portland, Oregon

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Portland, Oregon

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Norman BodekAug. 12, 1932 - Dec. 10, 2020 Norman Bodek a longtime resident of Vancouver, Wash., and currently living in Japan passed away Dec. 10, 2020 at the age of 88.They called him Mr. Productivity, a title Industry Week gave him in the 1980s and one that stuck until he earned another moniker...

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RiP my friend. It was late, after a full day of meetings, thank you for caring and guiding me through meditation.

Thank you Norman Bodek for your gift of knowledge, love of learning, never have I met someone so dedicated as you. You called me in Nov 2020 and said "Lori no matter what you do make sure the whole world is doing Corporate Social Responsibility, it is the key and the single most important thing, please, please, make sure everyone knows. Keep telling people, work hard, give back, study hard, be curious. Thank you Norman, daily we study, we continously improve in all we do, we generate...

Everyone had such nice things to say about him. After I bought the Taichi and shigella books, we would argue whenever I called. You see I was delivering a TPS variation based on my own version of problem solving. Our disagreement was not only how you delivered it to workers but his preference of train the trainer programs. About every two years we would talk and argue. That went on since 1986. Gonna miss him.

By always looking for new wihsness, despite his greatness Norman was never above, but next to people.
His definition of Lean is my foundation.
I wish all family members a lot of strength with this loss
Love

He was a guide, guru and committed man

He was a great friend and inspiring mentor. I will miss him.

David Veech

My father worked on many projects with Norm going back to the 1980's, and I had the privilege in working with him on a couple of projects a few years ago. He was a very sharp fellow, and always an evangelist for his latest finding!

What I'll never forget was when he got up to speak in Salt Lake City at a conference on "The Visual Workplace" where my father was presented with a lifetime achievement award. Norm was soooooo funny, he had us all rolling in the aisles. It was less a...

I hadn't seen Norman for several years, but for some reason, I recently felt like I wanted to see what he was up to. I had the pleasure of working with Norman when I worked at SME facilitating many Lean collaborations for learning. He was so knowledgeable and personally committed to making sure that what we called "the human side of lean" was made visible and important. It was a privilege to work with him on several projects. I was saddened to hear of his passing and offer my condolences to...

I remember the first time I heard Norm speak. I have never laughed so hard in my life... and Norm was talking about quality improvement, which normally has people nodding off. People listened.

Myself and the team at Quality Digest worked quite a bit with Norm several years ago. A true pleasure.

He will be missed.
Dirk