Bruce was born at home in Enterprise, Kansas, on 21 February 1926, to Charles Fay and Ruth (Scott) Buck, the middle of three children with older brother, Dick, and younger sister, Joyce.
Bruce enlisted in the Navy during World War II while attending North Kansas City High School and after graduating in 1944, he deployed to the Pacific Theater. Following the war he returned to attend the University of Missouri where he studied engineering and participated in the Army Reserve Officer Training Program (ROTC). He married Julianne Aaron on 28 August 1949 and together they raised three children; Anne, Joel, and Maggie.
Following a short career with the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) where he worked on a team developing a color TV picture tube, he was commissioned into the Army where he served as a Field Artillery officer for more than 25 years.
Bruce was a veteran of World War II and the Viet Nam War as well as serving overseas tours in Korea and Germany. He attended graduate school at the University of Virginia followed by assignment as a Nuclear Physicist at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California. When stationed at Fort Leavenworth, Bruce served as the Scout Master for Boy Scout Troop 66, providing a role model for more than 40 boys. He took them camping nearly every weekend, and during the summers he led the troop to the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico and the Charles L. Sommers Wilderness Canoe Base in Minnesota.
Bruce was a skilled craftsman working primarily with wood, finishing the interior of his and Julie’s home as well as building a gazebo and floating dock on the lake where they lived in northwest Arkansas for 17 years after he retired from the Army. His ability to fix virtually anything was legendary within the family – so much so that even when a glass shattered, the response was not to worry, “Dad will fix it.” He had an amazing green thumb, and was able to grow nearly any plant anywhere - from the dry deserts of Texas and New Mexico to the humidity and rocky soil of northwest Arkansas. He enjoyed fishing and stamp collecting throughout his life, and took up golf when he and Julie moved to Arkansas. Their home was the site of frequent visits by friends and family, their children and grandchildren.
After Julie’s death in 1999, after more than 50 years of marriage, Bruce reconnected with a group of friends with whom he had attended school in North Kansas City. In September 2001, Bruce married Sue Woods, another 1944 North Kansas City High School graduate. He and Sue were married until her death in 2012.
Bruce was preceded in death by his parents, his wife Julie, his second wife Sue, and his brother Dick. He is survived by his sister Joyce [Gene] Johnstone, his children: Anne Williams, Joel [Diane] Buck, and Margaret [John] Hynes; 8 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren, and numerous nieces/nephews.
Visitation and a memorial service will be on Monday 13 Jan 2020 at 10:00 a.m. at White Chapel Funeral Home, 6600 NE Antioch Rd, Gladstone, MO Followed by burial at 2:00pm that afternoon at the Fort Riley, KS, post cemetery.
