Edward Charles Brindley Jr., a big man with a gentle heart, passed away at the age of 82 on Thursday, December 11th. Ed Brindley spent his life dedicated to teaching as a college math professor and helping others through his trade publications serving the pallet and lumber industries. He was the kind of person who never met a stranger and loved making new friends, especially in the pallet and lumber industries.
Ed founded Industrial Reporting Inc., in 1977 by starting the Wooden Pallet Index, the first market report for the pallet and low-grade lumber industries. This publication later became the Pallet Profile and has become a valued source of market and industry information for the North American pallet market. He later founded Pallet Enterprise magazine, TimberLine magazine and Recycle Record with the help and dedication of his talented team. He valued the many friendships and publications that he developed in his more than 45 years working with the forests products industry.
A long time ago, Ed said, “I traded a classroom for an entire industry. I was always motivated to help the people in the pallet sector just like I was with my students.” Before his publishing career, Ed worked as a mathematical statistics professor at Bowling Green State University, Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia State University.
During his pallet industry career, he visited countless pallet plants, wrote about many of the leading companies and technologies and spoke at numerous forest products industry meetings and events. His focus was helping pallet companies run better companies and improve their operations. He once joked, “My high school English teacher would be surprised to see me making a living as a writer. But I have done pretty well as a business writer for a mathematician.”
A committed Christian, one of the things that Ed was most excited about was talking about his faith with people in the pallet and lumber industries. Along with a few others, he founded a church service at the national pallet association industry meeting, and this group, now continues as a prayer meeting to this day. He always loved to tell the stories of how pallet people were making a difference by caring for employees and integrating faith into the workplace.
Ed was a man who highly valued his faith and was a longstanding member of The Chapel located in Midlothian, Virginia. He was on the board for many years back when the church was Trinity Assembly of God. His hobby was his business, spending time with family and doing math puzzles.
Ed’s favorite Bible verse was, Isaiah 40:31, “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
A Life Celebration Service was held on Saturday, December 20th in Richmond, Va. You can watch a replay of the service at https://tinyurl.com/2p346nnb. You can also leave a memory or comment on Ed’s virtual memory wall at https://tinyurl.com/mv68azxp or e-mail these thoughts to chailleb@gmail.com.
