SOLVED (see below) ... That's only useful in a closed environment, and if you have only a few users ... if you have a shop or 1000 users, it doesn't make sense for your clients to have to ask an administrator to change their password.  Surely there must be a way for clients to get a "reset password e-mail" sent to the address that they used to create their account so they can reset the password themselves. And Why would an administrator want to know peoples' passwords in the first place? Only 1 person should know the password ... the owner of the account ...

SOLUTION :

after much digging in the repository and searching for keywords ... I found this thread ... https://www.odoo.com/forum/help-1/question/how-to-enable-password-reset-in-the-login-screen-4788

Basically the password reset function is disabled by default for the portal (website).
To activate the password reset button ...

• go to settings in the top menu

• in the URL for your odoo system (https://mydomain.TLD:8088/web#menu_id=86&action=78)
  Add ?debug to your URL (https://mydomain.TLD:8088/web?debug#menu_id=86&action=78)

• click on general settings -> Enable password reset from Login page
  

• click apply at the top of the page

• remove the ?debug from your URL.
  

• DONE!
  

The admin user can change the password for any other user.  Your user will have to notify the admin, and the admin can effect this change either by sending a link for the user to generate a new password, or by setting the password to one known to both.