Bruce Steele Samuels

Bruce Samuels, dedicated public servant, community organizer, husband, and father, passed away on Sunday, July 27, 2025, at 82 years old. Bruce helped develop the Head Start program as well as Sesame Street in the late 1960s in New York City. He was then hired by the U.S. Department of Labor's Chicago office, where he spent nearly 40 years rescuing millions of dollars in employee pensions that unscrupulous employers had failed to pay. He cited the work he did recouping the millions of dollars in embezzled pensions as his greatest accomplishment in life. He also helped transform his local political landscape by co-founding the Illinois Green Party and serving two terms on the Oak Park, Illinois Library Board.

The veritable paragon of "too smart for his own good", Bruce was repeatedly expelled from college - once for refusing to shave his beard - but eventually graduated from City College of New York. His youthful adventurous spirit took him overseas, where he lived on a kibbutz in Israel, hitchhiked around Europe, and slept on park benches in Paris. Returning to New York City, he got a job at a social work agency where he met Julie Natco who would be his sun, moon, and stars for the rest of his life.

Bruce Steele Samuels was born in Long Branch, New Jersey in 1943 and grew up in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York with his younger brother Charles. He and Julie were married in New York in 1968 and had their first two children, Rachel and Aaron, in 1970 and 1972 respectively, as they made their way west and eventually settled in Oak Park, Illinois in 1973. When they tried to buy a house there and found themselves redlined by the banks, their activism and media appearances were instrumental in the creation of the federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act in 1975. That year they had their final child Noah. Bruce and Julie continued to work tirelessly side-by-side to make a better world for their three children, helping to establish the first recycling program and health food co-op in their town in the 1980s and shut down a nearby toxic incinerator in the 1990s.

In his leisure time, Bruce whipped his opponents - many half his age or younger - in racquetball. He took up genealogy and skillfully tracked down relatives on distant branches of the family tree without the internet. He was a voracious reader of fiction and non-fiction and virtually unbeatable at Scrabble. He also enjoyed collecting coins and stamps. In his later years, he loved watching deer and communing with nature at Thatcher Woods forest preserve near his home.

Bruce is survived by his three children and his niece Jennifer.

A celebration of life party for Bruce will be held at his Oak Park home from 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM on Saturday, September 6th, 2025. The party will be a potluck of snack foods and beverages. In honor of the Samuels family's commitment to the environment, please bring your own cup, plate, utensils, and napkins if you want them. Those who would like to attend should email shaktihands "at" gmail "dot" com for the address.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the Oak Park Animal Care League at https://www.animalcareleague.org/waystogive.