IP Democracy: A Sad Personal Note - Great Cable Technologist is Gone

I don’t usually write about personal matters in this blog but the cable industry lost a good person this morning. Technologist Wendell Bailey passed away after a short illness.

Wendell was someone who everybody in the cable industry knew as a point-man for technology translation. At the time he passed away, he had his own consulting business called Strategic Technology International. Before that, he was Chief, Technologies, Advanced Broadband Technology at NBC, Inc., working for Bob Wright and Tom Rogers (now CEO of Tivo). But, before that he spent 17 years as the Vice President of Science and Technology at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, where I worked closely with him and became his friend.

Wendell was a great supporter of mine and he spent as much time as it took to teach me the ins-and-outs of cable technology. When I moved from NCTA to work for Paul Kagan Associates, where I was charged with writing the Cable TV Technology investment newsletter, I could always count on Wendell to help me figure things out and to put me in touch with the right people so that I could get the answers I needed.

There’s no denying that Wendell was also a character; he knew how to have fun. His NCTA Engineering Committee trips were, in a word, a blast.

I saw him recently and I didn’t have a business card on me. He gave me his card and I promised to call him for lunch. I didn’t and I wish I had.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on September 26, 2006 12:07 PM to IP Democracy