As the result of his father being a career naval officer, Bruce grew up in an extraordinarily diverse collection of communities throughout and outside of the United States. He was born in Boston but only lived there for less than a month. That proved ample time, however, for Bruce to become a lifelong Red Sox fan. As is typical in the military, his family moved frequently, and he thereafter lived for varying periods of time in California, Tennessee, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Missouri, the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., Bath, England, Annapolis, Maryland, and North Carolina. By age 11 Bruce had lived in eight different homes and by the seventh grade he had attended eight different schools of varying degrees of educational quality. Thereafter, however, he was fortunate to have the opportunity to attend four excellent, but quite different, educational institutions.

The first was the Kingswood School, an English “public” boys’ school in Bath which was much like Hogwarts, but without the wizards. That opportunity was the result of Bruce’s father being assigned to serve as an assistant naval attaché and the American Navy’s technical liaison officer to the British Admiralty, the offices of which were located in Bath. At Kingswood Bruce excelled at rugby and “athletics” [track] and experienced a three-year cultural immersion as the school’s only American student. During those years he also had the opportunity to be a spectator to, and peripheral participant in, the whirlwind of diplomatic and social activities which surrounded his father’s attaché service.

After their time in England, Bruce’s family moved to Annapolis, Maryland, where his father’s next appointment was as the Head of the Engineering Department at the Naval Academy. They arrived there just in time to follow the Navy football team through Roger Staubach’s Heisman Trophy season. During his family’s time in Annapolis Bruce’s extraordinary educational experiences continued as he had the opportunity to attend Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. That privilege was enhanced by it occurring during the transformational leadership of the school by its legendary headmaster, Frank Boyden, a tenure which is recounted in John McPhee’s “The Headmaster”. At Deerfield Bruce was similarly peculiarly fortunate to be coached by Jim Smith on the varsity football team and to run track for coach Moreau Hunt. Both men had such formative influence on the school’s culture and traditions that today football at Deerfield is played on Jim Smith Field; and the track team competes on the Moreau Hunt Track.

Bruce’s undergraduate education was at THE University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There he ran track and excelled academically, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and in the top 5% of his class. Once again, his timing was fortuitous as he arrived in Chapel Hill just in time to experience the excitement of Dean Smith’s first three teams to reach the final four. As a result, and quite understandably, Bruce acquired his lifelong condition as an enthusiastic [some might say obnoxious] Tar Heel sports – and particularly basketball – fan. His most significant accomplishment in Chapel Hill, however, was meeting Lloydette Humphrey while they were both studying in Wilson Library and marrying her in the middle of his junior year.

As the result of his academic success at Chapel Hill Bruce was selected to receive a prestigious Patrick Wilson Scholarship to the Vanderbilt School of Law from which he graduated in the top 15% of his class. By about halfway through his three years at Vanderbilt Bruce realized that he had enjoyed North Carolina more than any of the many other different places he had lived throughout his life. Therefore, he and Lloydette decided to return to North Carolina for his practice law after graduating from Vanderbilt and Bruce accepted a position in Durham. That began his decades long legal career in the Bull City.

Bruce is an enthusiastic citizen and booster of Durham. He is proud to be a part of that remarkable community which demonstrates how diversity can be a city’s biggest asset. Consequently, despite the often all absorbing time demands of his civil litigation practice, Bruce has enjoyed giving back to and being involved in Durham civic organizations. In addition, he has continued to support and remain involved with the four extraordinary schools from which he so benefited. Of all he had done in Durham, however, Bruce is most proud of his and Lloydette’s daughter Mary Lloyd; of winning the son-in-law lottery when she married Kurt Preble; and of their three children Jack, Allison and Wright who in Bruce’s unbiased opinion also happen to be the world’s three most wonderful grandchildren.

During the decades of Bruce’s accomplished legal career, he has simultaneously pursued a fascination with history. That passion began during his years at Kingswood when he became captivated by British History. At Carolina Bruce majored in history and was admitted to Phi Alpha Theta, the national honorary society for history, after maintaining almost a 4.0 in that field while taking both undergraduate – and graduate! – level courses. His interest and achievement in history at UNC was such that he seriously considered pursuing a Ph.D. in that field before ultimately deciding to become his family’s first lawyer.

Since law school he has pursued his interest in history in a variety of ways. He has read and acquired such a volume of works as to possess a personal history library. And he has taken numerous undergraduate history courses and attended multiple seminars and lectures such as those presented by the Carolina Public Humanities program. His lifelong pursuit of this avocation has also led Bruce to the study of related academic disciplines including economics, political theory, philosophy, government, psychology and sundry public policy issues.

In addition to the enjoyment Bruce has received from these studies, he has realized that they have enhanced his understanding of the law.