Lyle Bunn Gone Too Soon
Guest Contributor, Dave Haynes, The Preset Group
Very sad news started filtering in late last week and over the weekend. I didn’t want to write anything until it was confirmed, and it unfortunately has been.
Well-known digital signage industry consultant Lyle Bunn has passed away. He died Tuesday, at his home in Brighton, Ontario, of complications from colon cancer. He was just 63.
I’d noticed Lyle had been absent from trade shows and conferences in the past year, but had vaguely understood he had elderly parents who needed his care. Clearly, though, he had his own serious health issue, which based on some emails today he seemed to be on top of, even this summer.
From the early days of the signage industry, Lyle was omnipresent at just about any industry events in North America. If he wasn’t speaking at these events, he was in the audience and among the first to ask questions.
He had a remarkable knack for keeping his name in the conversation and consideration list when it came to his consulting work, which by all reports he did well, and did well from. If there was an industry event, you would almost certainly see Lyle working the room and hallways.
He was also a voracious student of the industry – always learning and always sharing. He put out countless white papers and either ran or was part of many, many webinars.
A couple of years ago Lyle put out a statement saying he was stepping back from consulting and focusing on education, with something called the Center for Digital Experience. I’m not sure if it was very active, or if his health issues slowed those plans.
I think I last saw Lyle at the Air Canada departure gate in Las Vegas, heading, like me, back to our socialist paradise after DSE 2017. The Toronto-bound plane was late and overbooked, and the lounge was cramped and full of cranky people, like me, and, remarkably, Lyle. He even used a curse word, which just about floored me.
The enduring memory I have of Lyle Bunn is a ridiculously nice, kind man who rarely said an unkind thing. In a weird way, it was kind of nice to hear him use some salty language about Air Canada Rouge (well-earned). Normally all suit and tie, polished and practiced, he let his perfect hair down a little.
This is from I don’t know where or when – some mixer, somewhere – of me and Lyle. :-]
Lyle will be very much missed by the digital signage community. He loved it. Believed in it. And his enthusiasm and knowledge undoubtedly converted a lot of end-users from skeptics to adopters, and those jobs probably made the year for some companies and kept some people employed. He was among the industry’s biggest cheerleaders and evangelists.
He’ll also be missed by family. Not a lot of people know this, but Lyle wrote a 2015 book – XOXO From Dad – as an expression of love to his daughter, who based on the synopsis is in here 20s now. Like I said – ridiculously nice man. I hope that young woman was by his side Tuesday.
If you live in or north of Toronto, the service is at:
Brighton Fellowship Christian Reformed Church
Brighton, ON
Saturday, October 20, 2018
1:00 p.m.
The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be sent in Lyle’s name either to the Canadian Cancer Society or to the American Cancer Society.
And if you’ve put it off (not saying Lyle did, but …) GET A COLONOSCOPY!!!
Way too young. Not fair.
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