Maj. Robert D. Bruce III

Luke Antal is organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Rebecca Bruce.

Donation protected

Hi,

My name is Luke Antal and I was one of Bob's closest friends. We got to know each other at Dartmouth, where he graduated in 2005. Bob and I bonded over a shared love for the outdoors. I was inspired by his adventures, and over the years we shared many fishing, hunting, and camping trips together.

In November 2021, Bob was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer that required immediate surgery. Just a few weeks later, Becky delivered their third child, Malcolm. Over the next year, Bob fought hard with regular chemo treatments but sadly, tragically, for reasons that we can not comprehend, Bob was taken from us on October 30, 2022. He was 39 and leaves behind his wife (Becky) and their three kids (Bob 5, Abigail 3, Malcolm 1).

In April 2022, Bob and I went on a fishing trip into the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina - about 3 hours from his home - and we had a chance to talk about a lot of things. We reflected on our lives, adventures, family, and the future.

Between some heavy conversations, the idea of this GoFundMe came up, and Bob very much appreciated the idea and supported it.

As a father of three kids of similar age to Bob's, I know how hard it can be to raise a family. But I can't possibly imagine the challenges that Becky faces now that her partner is gone.

I hope that through this fundraiser, we can show our love for Bob in a practical way that will in some small way help to make things a bit easier for Becky and the kids.

Your donations will go directly to Becky, and will be put toward things like:

Babysitters
Delivered meals
Day care
Etc...

Thank you for considering helping in this way. Below I've laid out some favorite stories and pictures of Bob.

All the best,

Luke

...................................

Bob's obituary

Bob's memorial service

Our friend lived more in his 39 years than many people live in 80. I won't come close to capturing everything here, but from memory and with the help of others over the last few months:

First and foremost, Bob was a Mainer. He grew up in Caratunk which had a population of ~100 people. He was able to return to Caratunk in July 2022 in between chemo treatments and I was lucky enough to spend 3 days in the woods with him. I could tell at the time that it was likely his last trip back to visit.
He grew up in the outdoors hunting and fishing - like way more than "recreational." I always loved the story about how Joe, Bob's dad, used to tell him that "God put squirrels on the earth to teach young boys how to shoot a rifle."
Bob was at one with nature. He was a highly-skilled tracker in the woods. He would notice a broken branch, or a ruffled deer bed, or hear a sound only perceptible to him, and was able to ascertain where deer, grouse, or rabbits were likely to be (and they almost always were where he expected).
He once estimated he'd spent over 1,000 days in the woods. His love of hunting was more about being in the woods vs. the thrill of the kill. He always ate everything he killed.
He made many trophy-sized deer kills and the antlers are mounted on the walls of their home in Caratunk.
Bob knew a lot about guns, having grown up around them and his father, Joe, is a collector.
Bob got into Gould Academy, a prestigious boarding school in Maine. I only found out recently that as a child, Bob only listened to classical music. He was an accomplished pianist (had no idea) as a kid.
In high school he was a river guide in Maine, taking clients down rapids on whitewater rafts. He did this for most of his teenage years and was known in the rafting community as one of the most gifted and bad-ass river guides ever to do it. He also participated in Lumberjack competitions, likely winning all that he entered though I don't have any formal proof of that.
After Gould, he tried to enlist directly with the Army, but was turned away due to a prior concussion or head injury. His backup plan was to attend Dartmouth.
At Dartmouth, he was a member of Alpha Chi Alpha and The Sphinx. During this time, he took about 6 months off to live in Alaska where he was a deckhand on a commercial fishing boat, a bear hunting guide, and he also cared for sled dogs for an entire winter, alone, in the cold Alaskan tundra.
He fondly remembered this time, especially the drive from NH to Alaska, as his greatest adventure.
He is widely regarded as AXA's "hard guy of the century," an unofficial award that any AXA reading this will understand and agree with, but likely not mean much to others (sorry).
After Dartmouth, he again attempted to enlist in the Army but was again rejected for the same reasons.
And so once again, his backup plan was to attend a prestigious university, this time enrolling inthe Tufts School of Medicine to become a physician. Soon thereafter, the Army finally accepted him and he began his service to our country.
Bob's family has a very long lineage of military service dating back to the Civil War. Their house in Caratunk is full of this kind of memorabilia with things like tour-orders that are signed by American Presidents from the 1800s.
In the Army, Bob became an accomplished physician and completed a fellowship in Critical and Pulmonary Care. He rose to a rank of Major and was the physician for a station of about 1000 men and women supporting a helicopter squadron.
He earned the respect of his squadron by doing daily PT with them, something that is highly irregular for the doctors to do. He would join them on their 10 mile runs carrying a 60 pound pack. He'd often push himself to the point of vomiting and keep going. This work ethic and philospy earned the respect of his squadron, and he shared with me that caring for his troops was the thing he loved most about being an Army physician.
For a long time, he aspired to be a special forces medic, but he ended up getting into that a little too old (early 30s) and it didn't work out.
He met Becky when they were both stationed in Seattle area. She was an Army nurse at the time. He loved his kids and was a great father. In his last two weeks, he was able to take his eldest son fishing at a local pond and they caught some bass on a spin rod with a worm. He was very proud of this and it made him happy that he was able to be there when Bubba caught his first fish.
He was hands-down the best storyteller that probably any of us have ever known. He had what I always thought was a photographic memory. An ability to pick some tiny memory from years ago that was relevant to a current conversation and retell the story to every detail and tell it in a way that was so engaging.
He loved playing cribbage. He beat me in almost every game we every played.
He loved adventure and living life to the fullest. He was a hard worker.