Braus

James M. Braus passed away on October 5, 2017. He had earlier suffered from strokes and heart attacks. He was an industry icon and will be missed by family, friends, and colleagues.

Jim was born on November 14, 1936, in Bismarck, North Dakota, the second of six children. He graduated as valedictorian of his high school and enrolled at St. John’s University, located near St. Cloud, Minnesota. He earned his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering in 1958 from the University of North Dakota. During the summer sessions between his junior and senior years, he worked in Montana as a member of an exploration and production crew for Shell Oil Company. Upon graduation, he was immediately hired by Shell as a technician, and moved to Illinois to begin his career at the Wood River Refinery Experimental Laboratory outside of St. Louis.

In 1964, Jim transferred to the Manufacturing Technology Department at the Staff Head Office in New York City as a senior engineer. By 1974, Jim was named superintendent of major projects at the Deer Park Manufacturing Complex near Houston, where Shell was beginning a five-year billion dollar project. In 1982, he was named general manager of the Shell Manufacturing and Technical Organization.

In the late 1970s, The Business Roundtable began its Construction Industry Cost Effectiveness Project, a five-year study of the industry. (Carroll Dunn was the staff leader of the CICE Project, which produced 23 reports, a summary report, and 200 recommendations for industry improvement.). Through Jim’s leadership, Shell played a prominent role in the CICE Project, which had numerous participants.

One CICE Project recommendation was to establish an ongoing effort to continue research and industry development. That led to the formation of the Construction Industry Institute (CII), headquartered at The University of Texas at Austin but involving multiple companies and universities, in 1983. Jim was a member of the first CII Board of Advisors. (I had not met Jim previously, but later realized that he had named himself to the CII Board.). Jim later chaired the CII Annual Conference, and was honored by CII as the 1992 recipient of its highest recognition, the Carroll H. Dunn Award of Excellence. At that time, the Dunn Award recipient was not revealed until the Annual Conference, and instead was left as a surprise that neither the recipient nor the conference attendees knew. (With Jim’s typical shyness, he accepted the award, but stated he would not have picked himself.)

Jim was characterized by terseness and understatements. He was the epitome of the E.F. Hutton commercials that were popular at the time (which had the line, “When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen.”) in that when Jim Braus spoke, everyone listened! He was chosen as the first president of the National Academy of Construction in 1998 and guided its initial formation. The initial draft bylaws for the NAC included a section for an Awards Committee. Jim cautioned that awards would likely lessen the impact of the Academy and that if the Academy wished to proceed, it should name only one award and that it should be named after an individual with impeccable credentials. He then stated that, in his opinion, only one such individual existed, Ted C. Kennedy. The issue was deferred for more than 10 years. NAC established its only award, the Ted C. Kennedy Award, in 2011. Ted was the first recipient a few months prior to his death. Jim also was responsible for the inclusion of union labor leaders among Academy membership.

Jim’s presence was felt in many other ways. He enticed Emmitt Nelson to remain on Shell’s payroll as a consultant after Emmitt’s retirement in the late 1980s, with the assignment to head the CII effort to improve construction industry safety. The result was the Zero Accidents Initiative, which is still continuing today. As a result, the CII companies’ OSHA safety statistics are an order of magnitude better than those of the industry as a whole.

Jim’s main characteristic was his self-effacing manner. He once hosted a golf outing at his club for the CII Executive Committee. I was a member of his threesome, and he was a terrible golfer. He later mentioned that it was the best round he had ever played and that he had never broken 100 on nine holes before! He once sent me an email announcing “the demise of a large deer.” Attached was a picture of a large elk he had shot on an African Safari.

Jim was diligent in obeying Shell’s internal rules. We had a CII tour of the English Channel Tunnel Project during its construction. He notified Shell that the trip had no Shell involvement and that it was professional only. He once insisted on paying for the CII Executive Committee dinner at an expensive NYC restaurant. His explanation was that it would be easier to be reimbursed for hosting the group than for only his share. He always flew coach class, although his assistant often flew first class on the same flights. He explained he would fly first class if the Shell criteria for reimbursement were by weight rather than position in the company.

Jim was a family man. He and Joyce had five children each, from prior marriages. He referred to his wife as “Joyce the Good.” They annually hosted two trips to Europe for their children’s families, complete with lodging and rented vans for transportation. One trip was for Jim’s family and another, to the Czech Republic, to trace Joyce’s family roots. He also was close to a relative, who is the executor of Jim’s estate.

Jim Braus was truly an industry icon. His presence will be missed, but his influence will be everlasting.

― Richard Tucker, 2018