In Memory of a Colleague and Friend, Dick Bourke (1931 - 2023)

Written by Martin van der Roest

It's with great sadness to report that my dear friend and colleague, Dick Bourke, passed away last week, Thursday, May 18, 2023.  He had just turned 92 on May 8th.

Dick and I literally had lunch just a week prior.  Upon seeing him already seated at the restaurant and approaching him, I asked Dick how he was doing.  He cheerfully replied, “I’m feeling frisky."  That was such a signature Dick reply.  He was always upbeat, enthusiastic, energetic, kind, humble, and non-judgmental.  I never heard him say a negative thing about anyone.

My friendship with Dick started about 3 decades ago.  A longtime mutual friend, Gene Thomas, was hosting me at his house north of Chicago.  During the course of our conversation, Gene told me I needed to get acquainted with Dick Bourke.  Right then and there, Gene called Dick and we were introduced.  I learned Dick lived in Pasadena at the time, close to my neck of the woods in Orange, and I told him I would connect when I got back.  A few weeks later I drove out to Pasadena, and we had lunch.  We hit it off right away.

Dick grew up along the East Coast and traveled to various locations as his father was in the Navy.  Eventually they made their way to Southern California.  Dick earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry and went on to get an MBA, both from UCLA.  He then joined the military and served in Korea.

After his service, Dick married Mary, his wife of nearly 60 years.  She passed away in 2017.  They settled in Pasadena and raised a daughter, Mary, and son, Scott.  Their house was right off Orange Grove Boulevard where the annual Rose Parade started.  Every year they would host a breakfast for family and friends and provide front row seats to the parade.  He and Mary spoke often and fondly of this yearly event.

His first job after the service was with Textron.  He went on to Carrier and then IBM.  It was there where he got plugged into the use of computers for manufacturers. 

In 1971 he launched his own consulting business, Bourke Consulting Associates.  In 1975, he authored a book on the topic of automating Bills of Material.  It was the first modern guide to managing this key building block.  APICS cited his book as a “classic in the field.”

Dick had a knack for making technical concepts accessible and easy to understand.  He went on to write articles for numerous manufacturing-oriented magazines, spoke at various industry conferences, and later carried a blog series for Engineering.com.

During the early 2000s Dick’s mother passed away.  She had a house in Laguna Woods, California (Leisure World at the time).  Given that Dick and Mary were now empty nesters, they decided to downsize and moved into Dick’s mother’s house.

With Dick now being near our offices in Orange, we started a closer working relationship.  We retained Dick to help us with our whitepapers during our partnership with MatrixOne (before the Dassault acquisition).  Later that decade, we worked together to catalog his writings and made them accessible on the web.  In the 2010s he consulted with Alcove9 (a venture started by vdR and Sam Abu Hamdan).  Later, as vdR launched our relationship with Aras, he became the editor of our Practical PLM Newsletter.

In the last several years, Dick served in the capacity as “Senior Adviser” to vdR.  He relished this role and would regularly have a series of topics he wanted to discuss with me at our monthly lunches.  And he loved lunch at King’s Fish House.  He would start with a bowl of clam chowder with extra bacon bits … his absolute favorite.

Dick was a stickler for grammar.  I teased him about being the walking/talking version of the New York Times Editorial Guide.  We would submit draft copies of blogs or white papers for his review, and they would come back shredded with red lines.  And oh … how we argued about the use of ellipsis.  The banter literally continued during our last lunch together.

After Mary passed away, he took an interest in caricature drawings.  Over the past couple of years, he sketched every day.  He carried his sketch book everywhere, even to our lunches.  He was a true renaissance man and never stopped learning and challenging himself!

Dick joined our annual company Christmas lunches for nearly 20 years.  It was there, folks would hear me say, “I want to be like Dick when I grow up.”  And I meant every word.  He has been a role model in so many ways.  He has been an unselfish champion and cheerleader of our efforts.  But ultimately, he was a dear friend, and I will miss him greatly.

Martin