Mr. Jenkins passed away peacefully surrounded by his family on Monday, December 12th, at the age of 84. Bernie was married to his wife Diane for 60 years this past April. They had 4 children, Denise, Jeffrey, Craig and Lori, many grandchildren and a great grandchild. Sadly, Jeff passed away on October 9th of this year. Bernie is a Michigan native who moved to Florida after retirement. Bernie was a proud U.S. Army Veteran of the Korean War. He was laid to rest with full Military Honors at South Florida National Cemetery in Lake Worth FL.
Bernie was a career salesman. He started out in the concrete business before getting into the lighting industry. He started his lighting career working for a company called Skyline which Valmont bought in 1980. Bernie then worked for Valmont until he started at United Lighting Standards in 1985. He was the General Manager of the company until he retired in 1998. He brought his sales managing expertise to ULS and was responsible for hiring many independent rep agencies, some of which we still have today. He also started many alliances within the OEM sector as well. Bernie always called himself the pole man, he could charm anyone into buying whatever he was selling. Bernie was the type of man that always had a smile on his face and a joke to tell. He will be sorely missed by all who knew and loved him.