Vince

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The NIH Will Miss Vince

August 31, 2011 | Gwynne Jenkins

I never met Vince face-to-face, but working with him was one of the most fun and gratifying experiences I’ve had in all my professional life.  When I started working at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), I was faced with taking over the development of an orphaned on-line tutorial.  The contractor was d’Vinci – I remember thinking “What a great name for a company!”  Then … I started regular phone calls and brainstorms with Vince and other members of the team … and soon it was obvious that the clever company name and the catchy d’Vinci Web site completely matched the clever, inspired group led by Vince. The kindness, humor, integrity, and inspiration that Vince brought to the table kept me moving forward on a project that intimidated me to no end.  While the content of the tutorial wasn’t unfamiliar, my training as a medical anthropologist hadn’t prepared me for working with IT designers talking about SQL and databases and ALT-tags and … you get the picture.   Vince made it all seem easy.  He had limitless patience during what seemed to be an eternity of Web site development, and was a constant delight to work with.  The numbers of “J”s and “!!!” of happiness exchanged via email as the original tutorial thrived and expanded into a Spanish language version (Vince’s idea) can’t be counted.  I’ll miss you Vince!  Everyone here at the NIH who knew you and had the pleasure to work with you feels the same – that you were an amazing gift to us, helping us fulfill as aspirations and do real good in the world.  God bless you and yours.

Gwynne L. Jenkins, PhD, MPH
Special Assistant to the Director, OEP