Robert "Bruce" Jenkins

1951 - 2017

Robert Bruce Jenkins 66, of Seneca, passed away on Wednesday afternoon, Dec. 27, 2017, at his home after a long, hard-fought battle with cancer.

He and his wife Elizabeth (Paxton) Jenkins were married on Aug. 25, 1979 in Punxsutawney, and they lived for 36 years at 214 Horsecreek Rd., in Seneca, Pa.

Born in Greenville, he was the son of the late Richard Latham Jenkins and Lois Biss Jenkins.

He was a graduate in the Franklin Senior High School Class of 1969. During his senior year, he sat first chair trumpet in the FHS concert band. He credits his band directors Bill Snyder, Harold Pixley and Ed Frye with his love of music.

His first job at age seven was helping to build the Jenkins' Trout Hatchery near Utica, Pa. He and his family single-handedly developed a successful hatchery business, where he worked for 20 years.

During this time he also received a B.S. in biology from the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, and his teaching certificate and nursing degree from Clarion University.

He came of working age during the 1980s, when so many plants were downsizing or closing in Venango County. Consequently, he worked at Joy Manufacturing, Liberty Electronics Cytemp Specialty Steel and Franklin Hospital, and he retired from Time Machine.

He was an amateur entomologist who collected and professionally mounted hundreds of insects, and an avid philatelist with an extensive stamp collection. Combining his love for the outdoors with his skills as a cyclist, he won many trophies competing in mountain bike races in Western Pennsylvania. He and three friends from the Oil City area placed several times in the masters division at the 24-hour mountain bike races in West Virginia. He and his wife also cycled through Italy, Holland, Belgium and New Zealand before his illness.

Surviving, in addition to his wife, is a brother and sister-in-law James and Elaine Jenkins of Missouri, sister-in-law Janet Carpenter and husband Danny Leleo of Franklin and a special friend who visited him weekly throughout his three-year illness, Kevin "Cubby" Culbertson of Oil City.

Memorial contributions in Bruce's memory may be made to Allegheny Valley Trails Association (AVTA), Box 264 Franklin, PA 16323; or to Allegheny Riverstone Center for the Arts (ARCA), 42 S. Palmer Street, Foxburg, PA 16036.

The Hile-Best Funeral Home is completing funeral arrangements.

A celebration of life will be held for family and friends at a later date.

To express condolences to the family online, please visit www.hilebest.com.