DC Velocity - July 2017

IN RECENT MONTHS, AS WE HEARD THAT HIS HEALTH WAS
failing, we mused over an idea that was highly unorthodox to say
the least: asking Art van Bodegraven to write his own obituary.

Morbid? In the eyes of some, perhaps. But, knowing Art, we
sensed he would have been amused at the prospect, relished the
assignment, and handled it with his usual élan. His introspection
would no doubt have been spiced with the jaundiced-eye humor
that people so loved about him and which made him seem much
younger than the calendar would claim. Besides,
How prolific was Art van Bodegraven Jr.?
Consider this. After he retired from a long
career as practitioner, educator, and consul-
tant, he turned to writing. For DC VELOCITY,
he co-authored with his partner-in-crime, Ken
Ackerman, a kindred soul of wit and panache,
a column called “Basic Training” that ran for 14
years and was consistently one of the best-read
parts of the magazine. Art also published, on
average, three posts a week in the nine years
that he blogged for us. Two days after his June

18 passing, we were stunned to find that he had 50 unpublished
blogs in the queue, a chunk of which we believe he penned knowing
he was gravely ill. (We are privileged to post them, as well as prior
blogs, at http://blogs.dcvelocity.com/the_art_of_art/.) We can hear
him speaking through the prose, with the characteristic twinkle in
his eye and smile creasing his face, that “I’ve been doing this since
JFK was president, and I’m far from through!”
Art’s career, his achievements, and his long list of blue-chip cli-
ents—more than 150 U.S. and global companies covering countless
verticals—essentially track the history of modern-day supply chain
management. Yet he refused to be saturated with the past—no

ART VAN BODEGRAVEN, 1939–2017 basictraining

“I’m not gone. Just freshening up!”: An appreciation of Art van Bodegraven

matter how successful his tenure. He steadfastly changed with advancing times and embraced innovations (the Internet of Things?) that neither he nor anyone else of his era ever could have conceived. He was asked to mentor the next generations of practitioners, an opportunity that generally comes only to those who can comfortably relate to people coming up behind them.

All of this speaks to a man who was as renowned for his warmth and ebullience as for his dedication and professionalism. It was striking to attend industry receptions and watch people decades younger gravitate to Art and engage him in funny and stimulating dialogue. Even crabby, cynical journalists couldn’t help but seek him out for the enjoyment of his company. It is not hyperbole to say that Art injected brilliant color in what is often a black-and-white industry.

What about that self-styled obit idea? Unfortunately, no one on the staff (including this writer) had the nerve to ask him, so we will never know. But here is what we do know. When we were developing our blog project in 2008, we assigned subject matter titles to each blogger.

When it came time to select the title for Art’s blog,
we couldn’t think of anything more apropos than
simply, “The Art of Art.”
That sobriquet lives on, a tribute to a man who
made his trade, and more importantly, his life, an
art form.