Bruce Banks Hanger, III

1928-2020

Bruce passed away peacefully at his home in Carmel on Wednesday, December 2nd with his California family around him and surrounded by the love of his entire family who could not travel. He was 92.

Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, moving to Carmel in 1944, Bruce was a 1946 Carmel High graduate and Padre football player. He graduated from UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. He served with the Army Engineers in Korea (SCARWAF – Special Category Army with Air Force), constructing an airfield in the Han River at Seoul. He attended Hastings School of Law and practiced law in San Francisco. In 1983, he left his bachelor life and married Carmel-born Diane. He waited, he told her, until he was 55 to find the right woman. She was lucky he waited. Returning to Carmel in 2005, he and Diane spent the last 15 years happily “back home.”

Bruce made life an adventure. He danced to Harry James at the Palladium. Young Bruce searched for arrowheads in the Albuquerque desert and ice-skated on the cranberry bogs in Hyannis, Cape Cod. While at Cal, he attended three Rose Bowls, ’48, ’49, ’50, where Pappy’s Boys played, never winning. He visited all 50 states, driving across the U.S. countless times, and traveled internationally. Returning to Carmel, he always declared it was the most beautiful place on earth. A fan of Dixieland jazz, he loved the French Quarter and Bourbon Street, and attended Monterey’s Dixieland Jazz Bash over 20 years. He stood on Omaha Beach in Normandy to remember. He and Diane sat one Sunday on the beach at Sanlúcar, Spain where Columbus began his third journey to the New World. He ate his first Nicoise salad in Nice, France. He witnessed a Discovery launch from Cape Kennedy. A die-hard 49er fan, he sat in his 50 yard line seat and watched “The Catch” from Joe Montana to Dwight Clark. He danced with Diane and his four daughters on his 90th birthday to a mariachi band at a Merrill Gardens Monterey family-hosted party. There was never a history book he didn’t love, reading with a dictionary and atlas close at hand. A rite of passage for family was to learn first-hand how to grill “Bruce’s Chicken.”

In addition to Diane, who will keep him forever in her heart, Bruce leaves a large (technically “step”) family – four daughters: Val Graber [(Max), grandchildren Steve (Katie), Corey, (Josh), (great-greats Lane, Libby, Maisy), Robin (great-greats Miles, Lennon)]; Jessica Frame [(John), grandchildren Bria, Theron]; Cynthia Jacobson [(Tony), grandchildren Kirsten (Josh) (great-great Nick), Nikki (Chris) (great-great expected May ’21), Toni (Ben)]; Lucinda Henry [(Kendall), grandchildren Dion (Chelsea) (great-great Sophia), Jake (Alicia), Betsy, Diane]. He was predeceased by his parents, Col. Bruce Hanger and Lois of Carmel.

Memorial donations may be made to Central Coast VNA & Hospice (PO Box 2480, Monterey, CA, 93942), who made his final days comfortable with unbelievable love and care, or the Carmel chapter of American Red Cross (PO Box AR, Carmel, CA, 93921).