In Memoriam: Glen Beres

I just learned that Glen Beres passed away on June 20 at the age of 50. Glen and I were reporters together at National Jeweler in the early 90s--surely a different day and age. While I specialized in the diamond trade, Glen’s beat was the chains and other mass jewelry retailers.

You would probably remember him best as founding editor of National Jeweler’s SuperSellers and JCK’s High-Volume Jeweler magazines or a speaker at various trade shows. Most recently the proprietor of his own freelance business, Glen annually researched and authored our Top 50 North American Retail Chains and $100 Million SuperSellers lists.

Glen was always my go-to guy for projects involving the majors. I had learned to have confidence in him as I watched him in our cub reporter days skipping lunch and working early mornings and late nights to ensure he was getting the best interviews with top majors executives, who are notoriously difficult to reach, given their schedules.

At that time, though married, I was still a decade away from children. But Glen always seemed more mature than the rest of us. He was on the verge of starting his own family, which would grow to four children over the following years.

Among many relationships I’ve had in the business, Glen was one I maintained steadfastly over the years. His wasn’t the type of skill set I wanted to see slip from our family of writers. More important, he was a friend.

The past several years have been hard ones for all of us. Jewelry, the ultimate discretionary purchase, had a heavy toll taken by the recession. For those who write about jewelry, this was compounded by the immense shift in media usage following the development of the Web.

The road just kept getting tougher and tougher.

Even though I interacted with him less frequently over the years, Glen continued to play a vital role in my calendar, as we squared off each year regarding how we would approach our joint project.

Today, I am just in shock over the loss. The world is a smaller place without Glen Beres.