BRUCE WAGNER

Being a close friend of Steve's, I was a regular visitor to the Wagner home. Mr. Wagner would always welcome me with a hearty handshake and ask how I was doing. One of the friendliest fathers in the neighborhood by far. I had the golden opportunity to visit with him 2 days before his death. He couldn't speak, but he could understand what I was saying and tried like hell to respond to my words. I leaned in close and I was able to thank him for being such a good, warm and welcoming guy. I...

Bruce, Mike Brady and I would like you to track down Bob Kane and Jim O'Keefe. Locate nice comfortable and friendly chambers in which we can all deliberate and clelebrate and of course, put out a green light to help us find you.

Bruce was one of a kind. I was privileged to joing the law firm of Ropers, Majeski, Kohn, Bentley and Wagner in 1976 as a brand new lawyer right out of law school. The firm was filled with great trial lawyers, but there was only one Bruce. To see Bruce was to enjoy a smile, a joke, or just simply make your day better. He was a friend, a mentor and a role model for becoming a trial lawyer. My life was better for knowing Bruce and I will miss him, as will we all.

Bruce will live in my memory as a man of unquestioned integrity, humility and humor. I never saw Bruce without a twinkle in his eye, a smile on his face and a story on his lips. He made everyone he encountered feel appreciated and better about himself. He could have been elected to any political position, but trial lawyers everywhere are grateful he chose, instead, to be one of them, thereby ennobling the profession he loved so much. He will be missed.