Richard Earl Bruce

June 4th 1931-February 3rd 2022

Richard “Dick” Bruce passed away in his Kensington home on February 3rd 2022 after a long battle with Lymphoma. He is preceded in death by his parents, John and Hazel (Hilliard) Bruce, his brother Robert Bruce, his sister Mary Elizabeth (Bruce) Reed and his Granddaughter Janelle Marie Bruce. He is survived by his wife of 69 years Anna Joyce (Wagner) Bruce, his son Jerrold (Janet) Bruce, his son John (MaryAnne) Bruce, his daughter Julia (Larry) Baldwin, his daughter Jean (Kurt) Hoeger, his daughter Judith Bruce, his daughter Janet (Dan) Werdowatz and his daughter Joyce Bruce as well as 13 Grandchildren and 8 Great-grandchildren.

Richard was born on June 4th 1931 in Xenia OH to John and Hazel (Hilliard) Bruce. As a boy he spent hours running his trains in the basement of the family home, building model airplanes and riding his “whizzer” motor bike all over town. He attended St. Brigid School and Xenia Central High School where at age 15 met Anna Joyce Wagner, his future wife. His first job after high school was as a truck mechanics helper at the Eavey Company, a wholesale grocery warehouse where his dad was the superintendent. He once said the best part of the job was seeing how much respect the workers had for his dad.

In 1951 Richard went to work full time in the Air National Guard where he began his career as an airplane mechanic and eventually worked his way up to crew chief. On September 13th 1952 he married his high school sweetheart Anna Joyce Wagner. In April 1957 with his wife and 3 children in tow Richard moved to San Diego CA to further his career accepting a position at Ryan Aeronautical Company. In the years that followed 4 more children joined his growing family. In 1966 Richard went to work at General Atomics where he worked in a variety of areas including the Advanced Materials Development department under Dr. Ling Yang. One of the projects he worked on with Dr. Yang was the development and "Out-of-Pile" testing of fueled and un-fueled thermionic converters. These converters were for space applications and converted heat energy directly to electrical energy and at the time the project was cancelled one converter had been operating for 5 years un-fueled. It was a proud day for all involved when The Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC requested the converter be made into a display for their "History of Energy" feature. He also worked for Dr. Yang in the Fusion Group in various roles on a variety of projects including 13 years as the Machine Pit Coordinator for the DIII-Doublet Fusion Machine. On November 1st 1995, after 31 years, he retired from General Atomics.

Despite a busy work schedule Richard spent time after work and on weekends with his family hiking and camping in the local mountains, going on picnics in the park and at the beach so his sons could surf, taking day trips to the San Diego Zoo and Sea World, and numerous other types of outings around Southern California. He was also involved in the extracurricular activities of his children especially those involving their musical studies and performances. He drove all over San Diego for private music lessons, arrived early for pickup after school so he could listen in on band and orchestra rehearsals, drove all over Southern California for middle school and high school band competitions and performances, made custom music stands for the older kids so they could give family concerts in the community, traveled with his 3 youngest daughters high school marching band for many years working in a support role along with a group of parents known as “Band-Aides” and loved every minute of it.

In retirement Richard enjoyed hiking in the local mountains and joined a volunteer group, the Cuyamaca Rancho State Park Interpretive Assistance Unit, and patrolled the trails 2 Saturdays a month. In January 1996 he joined the San Diego Police Department’s VIP volunteer program working 2 days a week in the offices of Street Gangs division. He would spend the next 17 years with the department, donating more than 8000 hours of his time, becoming an integral part of the unit. He received a Commanding Officer’s commendation from the captain of the Street Gang Department in 1999 and was chosen as a “Volunteer of the Year” for 2000 and again in 2006, also in 2006 he was chosen as the “Business Exchange Club’s” San Diego Police Department’s Volunteer of the Year. He retired from the SDPD VIP volunteer program on October 30th 2012. Over the last few years of his life Richard began to document his experiences during his time in the Air National Guard as well as at Ryan Aeronautical and General Atomics. Having lived and worked in what was arguably the most prolific time in aviation history Richard had a front row seat for some of the most significant events to take place and in some cases was part of the show itself. Rather than let this “informal mémoire” go to waste he gathered some of the most important stories and edited them into short articles which he submitted for publication consideration to Flight Journal and Aviation History magazines. Both magazines accepted a few of his submissions for publication, an accomplishment in which he took great pride.

Richard was known for his intellect, his sense of humor and his kindness. He was greatly loved and will be greatly missed.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.goodbodymortuary.com for the BRUCE family.