Everett Brenner (pictured above during a happy celebration moment with his wife, Joan) died in hospital on 25 January 2006, just a short time before his 80th birthday (3 February)
Ev was a giant of the information world, and one of the true pioneers of indexing, search and retrieval from the 1950s onwards, above all during his reign as Head of the Abstracting and Indexing Service of the American Petroleum Institute where, for some thirty years, he drove the construction of some of the world's best discipline-oriented databases. After his retirement in 1988, he plunged with enthusiasm into consultancy projects, into an active role on the Programme Committee of the International Chemical Information Conference (from 1989 until October 2004) and as the driving force behind the Search Engine Meeting (until his retirement in April 2005). Ev Brenner started the Search Engine Meeting as early as 1994 (with a meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico that he organised for ASIDIC). Ev persuaded me that the Search Engine Meeting should continue and, in 1996, we duly launched the first Infonortics Search Engine Meeting in Bath (England).
When Infonortics organised the first International Chemical Information Conference in Montreux (1989) Ev Brenner was there as a senior and respected member of the Programme Committee. And he attended and contributed to every meeting, right up to his retirement from the committee in October 2004 (Annecy). Ev was someone you could always count on; he had real drive and real enthusiasm. He was kind and generous, intelligent and demanding. He loved travelling and, at the drop of a hat, he would be at JFK in New York awaiting take-off, often accompanied by his wife of over 50 years, Joan Brenner. A lover of good music, good food, good wine and all things interesting, Ev was a stimulating travelling companion as, after nearly 20 years voyaging with him, I can well testify. He devoured crossword puzzles and was a lifelong devotee of the New York Times newspaper. He appeared to be intimately acquainted with every major museum in Europe and North America, and with every major theatre venue (theatre was one of his passions).
Ev will be sorely missed; by his family, of course, but also by his legion of friends and colleagues. His honest and forthright opinions, often expressed forcibly, were a tonic of spring water in a world where too much is often ambiguous or nebulous. I shall miss him greatly; it was always good to pick up the telephone and "talk about it with Ev".
Harry Collier
As one of the first user of API/CAIS, I shall never forgot the first time I met Ev: it was at a training session in Paris (at Elf), many, many years ago. I was captivated in advance by the product and by the organisation. Then I met Ev; he was so friendly and so helpful. He visited my company, and I began to help him and his team train European users and even to persuade potential new European subscribers. I even wrote a French manual on chemical aspects of the API databases.
My family and I became his friends. When, feeling somewhat nervous, I arrived as a member of the APIPAT Task Force, then on the Steering Committee, he was there for me, helping me. He invited me to his home on Long Island and his wife Joan took care of me. Ev showed me Manhattan, and he and Joan invited my son Eric to stay with them for an enjoyable summer. My family and I always took the opportunity of having a meal with Ev and Joan when we met on our travels.
Happily, after he left API/CAIS in 1988, I found him again in the Chemical Information Conference programme committee, then, when I became an Associate at Infonortics, I found him again in the Search Engine Meetings where he was so brilliant, and again so kind and friendly. Last year in Boston my husband visited museums with him; and Ev, Harry Collier and Joan invited us with their other friends to an unforgettable dinner.
I am now left with the happy memory of an exceptional person,
a brilliant pioneer in the information world, a talented writer
and committee member and organiser ... and a true friend.
Anne Girard
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