Lowell Bruce Anderson

Dr. Lowell Bruce Anderson (“Bruce”) died peacefully in Bowie, Maryland on November 23rd at the age of 71. He passed away in his sleep, after doing two of his favorite things – watching football with his brother Barry and eating an ice cream sundae.

Bruce is survived by his children Bryan Anderson (wife Victoria) and Aimee Harmelink (husband Chris); his grandchildren Zack, Josh, Leigha and Jacob; and, his siblings Barrett Anderson (wife Lani) and Mark Anderson (wife Patricia).

Bruce was born was born in Chicago, IL on August 12, 1943 to Anna Anderson (nee Armbruster) and Lowell Anderson. He grew up on the South Side of Chicago, and had a lot of great memories with his brothers playing sports. He was especially known for making rules for games they invented. He graduated from Mount Carmel High School in Chicago, IL. He was accepted to some of the best Universities in the country, such as Harvard, Cal Tech and M.I.T. He chose Johns Hopkins in Maryland (he may have had a premonition that his kids would love their childhood in Maryland). He received his Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins and received his Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Northwestern University. He was a member of Tau Beta Pi, was elected to the Society of Sigma Xi and was awarded the Royal E. Cabell fellowship.

Bruce was a captain in the Army, and served his country in the Vietnam War receiving a Bronze Star Medal and the Army Commendation Medal.

He worked as an Operations Research Analyst from 1971-2009 for the Institute for Defense Analyses in Virginia. During his career, he actually had a hand in capturing a KGB agent (which he wasn’t permitted to talk about for almost 20 years!).

Bruce was known for being insanely smart; his love of coffee (his license plate was “Caffeine”); love of ice cream and cookies; yelling “ZERO, ZERO” at the beginning of Wally Ball games; watching the Redskins; coming to every high school softball game of Aimee’s (and, sprinting to the field to make sure that she had her bat in time for her first at bat); teaching his kids how to play baseball, lacrosse and other sports; taking his kids to Johns Hopkins lacrosse games (and championships); being licensed to marry couples (and even married a couple in a hot air balloon); competing in the egg tosses at Green Acres pool; getting a perfect score on his ACTs; never getting a grade lower than an “A” before college (except in German) and, of course, the love of his children. He will be greatly missed. Thank you to Bryan and Vickie Anderson, Zack, Josh and Leigha for taking such good care of him in his last years. It is more appreciated than you’ll ever know.

An open house/visitation for Bruce will be held on Saturday, November 29th at Robert E. Evans Funeral Home 16000 Annapolis Road Bowie Maryland from 2:00-5:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, please donate to Parkinson.org.

Bruce’s ashes will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery at a future date.