Dennis Allan Fletcher

IBM Marketing Pro Dennis A. Fletcher Leaves Legacy of Kindness

A career fostered in promoting high-tech business turns in later years to promoting just causes.

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Dennis Allan Fletcher, a longtime IBM marketing pioneer, business writer, and everpresent community organizer, has died at the age of 82.

Fletcher, whose working career spanned more than 60 years, died March 21, 2023 at Rancho Springs Medical Center in Murrieta, Calif. of a longstanding heart condition. Few of his friends and colleagues knew of his illness due to his energetic and active lifestyle and community involvement into his eighties.

Born July 11, 1940, in Los Angeles County to John E. Fletcher and Marinell Grimes, Dennis had a fraternal twin brother, Tom, who preceded him in death. Dennis attended John Muir High School in Pasadena and remained lifelong friends with many of his classmates.

Both his parents were high achievers, and Dennis' intellectual prowess emerged during his college studies, which began at Pasadena City College. In 1960, he earned an associate's degree in arts and languages with a specialty in German. He went on to study industrial marketing at Cal Poly Pomona and earned a BS in 1962.

Moving on to Cal State LA, Dennis earned a master's in business administration in 1963 and a master's in business management in 1964, all while teaching office management in the Business Department at Pomona. He earned a California Community College Teacher's Certificate, and during his teaching tenure, he wrote the lab manual for the department's office management training program. The bookstore proceeds from that manual went toward student scholarships.

Dennis recognized the vast future in computing and took an early programming class on the IBM 650 and SOAP programming language. He excelled at school and loved both technology and writing and was the recipient in 1960 of the Wall Street Journal Student Achievement Award for business writing. A textbook he later wrote teaching the IBM programming language RPG was assigned in schools and training classes for years and eventually sold more than 100,000 copies.

When he was 17, Dennis fell in love with Margaret McCullough, and they were married five years later in August 1963 in Los Angeles. The fact Dennis was Caucasian and Margaret was African American riled Dennis' parents, who as much as disowned him while he was still pursuing his education. Though he loved his parents, he always resented their attitude toward Margaret and their rabid reaction to his stepping across the racial divide of the day. Though he later reconciled with his parents, their reaction caused a profound introspection and heightened his sense of racial equality, a sensitivity he would later use to try and elevate the thinking of those around him. Margaret already had children, so none came from their union, and her career as a singer and subject to the pitfalls of a show-business lifestyle put a strain on the marriage, which ended in 1967.

Always the intellectual, Dennis was drawn to a bright and ambitious writer who hailed from the South. He and Patricia Ann Bunin were married in June 1972 in Richmond, VA. Their daughter, Saraly, was born in September of the following year, which started a father-daughter love that spanned the next four decades. She was Daddy's little girl, and both Patricia and Dennis showered her with affection, though their own marriage ended in 1980.

Dennis never remarried, choosing instead to leverage his good looks and woo a bevy of eligible women both in the U.S. and abroad. One of Dennis' strongest talents was his ability to network with like-minded people, and he recognized the early development of online dating sites like Match.com as the impressively powerful marketing tools they are. Meeting new people and bringing them together was a calling for Dennis, who enjoyed cooking and founded one of the first Meetup cooking clubs in Orange County.

Some would call Dennis a workaholic for he loved his job as a high-tech marketing consultant working through his firm, Fletcher Marketing. He was willing to engage day and night, weekends and holidays. There was little difference between work and play for Dennis. During his early career, he worked in Washington, D.C. as a contractor to the Department of the Interior under the Nixon administration. Later, he served as an IBM systems engineer in Los Angeles for five years. He developed a workshop training program for the East Los Angeles branch office of IBM that was rolled out nationwide and accelerated sales and installations of the IBM System/360 Model 20. This and other accomplishments earned him the IBM Thomas Watson Outstanding Achievement Award in 1964 and 1967.

As a high-tech marketing pro, Dennis specialized in the IBM midrange platform. He helped dozens of independent software companies and system integrators who support IBM's unique servers. The former System/36, AS/400, and today's IBM i run the world's banks and small and midsize businesses, and Dennis often was seen networking at IBM user group meetings with the likes of the late Pete Elliot, former marketing director at Key Information Systems of Agoura Hills, Calif., or Chris Smith, former high-tech editor and writer for IBM industry publisher McPress Online.

Ken Akren, a founder of Midrange Information Systems (MIS) (whose high availability solutions evolved into the much larger Vision Solutions, now called Precisely after acquisition by Syncsort in 2017), said of Dennis: "He is hands-down the best marketing consultant I have ever observed in any industry throughout my career. He is proactive, multi-dimensional, energetic, and experienced beyond words. I've traveled with Dennis to several countries on job-related assignments, and his adaptability and strategic insights in helping companies to enter the U.S. marketplace are second to none."

After retiring from high-tech consulting, Dennis settled in Southern California's Riverside County with his healthcare nurse, and later, his partner Judi Riefel. He began writing weekly for The Valley Chronicle newspaper in Hemet. and producing shows with Eddie George for Hemet Eye News. Dennis flourished as a general assignment reporter and show host and made numerous acquaintances on boards and commissions.

He volunteered for the Hemet Library Foundation and the Human Relations Council of Hemet, San Jacinto, and Menifee. A staunch advocate for the homeless, Dennis often challenged the status quo at meetings where he would promote the cause of those living in the San Jacinto Riverbed who are routinely harassed by the county sheriff. He often could be found delivering food, water, and collected goods to the destitute camped along the river.

At a May 21, 2023 memorial for Dennis held at the Golden Era Golf Course in San Jacinto, and sponsored by the Human Relations Council, Hemet Mayor Pro Tem Malcolm Lilienthal addressed the gathering: "Dennis was a person who brought joy and positivity wherever he went. His infectious laughter, his warm smile, and his unwavering kindness brightened the lives of those around him. He had a way of making everyone feel seen and valued, and his genuine compassion left a lasting impact on us all.

"Dennis will forever remain a part of us. In our hearts, his spirit will continue to guide and inspire us. May his memory be a source of light and hope, reminding us to live with kindness, to embrace joy, and to spread love in all that we do."

Dennis is survived by his daughter, Saraly Fletcher, of Pasadena, Calif., her mother, Patricia Bunin, and Dennis' longtime partner, Judi Riefel, of San Jacinto, Calif.

Donations in Dennis' name may be made to the National Alliance to End Homelessness (http://bit.ly/helpthehomelessnow).

- Chris Smith, July 2023