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8 The PCB Design Magazine • August 2014 by Andy Shaughnessy i-COnneCT007 THE SHAUGHNESSy REPoRT Goodbye, Dieter column A lot of people love their jobs; I do, and I bet you feel the same way. But Dieter Bergman was different. He devoted most of his adult life to IPC, and to PCB design. His heart belonged to Bannockburn. Many of you knew Dieter, or knew of him and his history, so I don't need to rehash his biography. He was in on the ground floor of the modern PCB and EDA industries, and he helped shape IPC into what it is today. All of this made him a rock star among PCB designers. Designers always wanted a piece of Dieter, and he did his best to accommodate them. I didn't know Dieter that well, but I always enjoyed talking to him, and, more importantly, listening to him. It was a good idea to pay at- tention when Dieter was speaking; you could learn quite a bit from his stories. And what a storyteller he was. And he told some of the funniest jokes, both clean and dirty, that I've ever heard. He was a child when his family moved from Europe to Philadelphia in the 1930s, and his first words of English were curse words. He loved to tell the story about a store owner who paid him to stop cussing in front of her store. The more he swore, the more money he made. I first met Dieter at a trade show when I started covering the industry in the 1990s. I mentioned that I was still learning about the technology. He laughed and said, "So am I!" He was so down-to-earth about himself, and barely impressed with his dozens of awards and indus- try accolades. I think he found the "living leg- end" badge mildly amusing. No, Dieter was usually much more interest- ed in talking about an upcoming DFM presenta- tion. He enjoyed working with PCB designers, identifying their challenges, and helping them stay ahead of the game. That's what really ani- mated him. I last interviewed Dieter a few years ago on the last day of IPC APEX EXPO. We were sup- posed to talk after his Design Forum keynote speech on the morning of the first day of the show. Un- fortunately for me, he was surrounded by designers af- ter his presentation and en- tertained questions until he was late for his next meet- ing, so he took off at a trot. I finally found Dieter on the last day of the show, roll- ing his bag down the hall, trying to get to the airport. I tried to catch up to him, walking, then power-walk- ing, but to no avail. He may have been 30 years older than me, but Dieter was pulling ahead! After a week at a trade show, I was ex- hausted, but Dieter seemed Dieter Bergman with Bob neves at the 2011 iPC Midwest show.