Dr. Robert Nolan "Bob" Bruce Jr.

1930 - 2020

Robert Nolan (Bob) Bruce, Jr., Ph.D., died on March 21, 2020 at the age of 89. Bob was born on October 11, 1930. He was the son of the late Robert Nolan Bruce and Frances Patterson Bruce. He attended Audubon School and Fortier High School, before enrolling in the civil engineering program at Tulane University. At Tulane, Bob was a member of Omicron Delta Kappa and Kappa Sigma fraternities. After receiving the Master of Science degree, Mr. Bruce was employed by the New York firm of Raymond International Inc., participating in projects in Venezuela, Mississippi, Florida, and Louisiana; including the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. In 1962, Dr. Bruce earned the Ph.D. degree in civil engineering from the University of Illinois in Urbana Illinois. He spent the next 45 years teaching structural engineering at Tulane University, where he held the Catherine and Henry Boh Chair in Civil Engineering for 20 of those years, and where he frequently commented on his good fortune at having such outstanding students. During his teaching career, Dr. Bruce served as a visiting faculty member at the University of Ghent, the University of Dundee, the Rangoon Institute of Technology, and the Technical University of Budapest. His summers were spent conducting institutes on nuclear weapons effects at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the George Washington University, and the Universities of Maine, Miami, Washington, Utah, and Puerto Rico. Dr. Bruce was a Fellow of the American Concrete Institute, the Prestressed Concrete Institute, and the International Association of Bridge and Structural Engineering. He served as President of the Louisiana Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers. As a pioneer in the field of prestressed concrete, Dr. Bruce led North American technical delegations to Japan, China, Hungary, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Australia, and New Zealand. His study abroad included Scotland and Switzerland; and included Fulbright Scholarships to Belgium, Burma, and Hungary. Dr. Bruce was recognized as the Tulane School of Engineering Outstanding Alumnus in 1995, was inducted into the Tulane Engineering Hall of Fame in 2006, and was the recipient of the American Society of Civil Engineers' T.Y. Lin Award in 2008 and 2012. He produced the publication "Engineering a Century," the history of the first 100 years of engineering education at Tulane. In 2001 he was recognized for his outstanding achievements by the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute and again in 2016, when he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Gulf South Precast/Prestressed Concrete Association. He was a member of the Southern Yacht Club and Rangoon Sailing Club, and was a Founder of the Friends of the Nydia. Dr. Bruce inspired countless students in engineering with his keen intellect, high expectations, and genuine interest in his students' lives and success, often expressed through his colorfully detailed stories. Dr. Bruce was preceded in death by his wife and best friend Ann Maylie Bruce. He is survived by his children Sarah Wells and Robert Bruce, his daughter-in-law Peggy Bruce, his grandchildren Austin Wells, Rivers Bruce, and Rachel Bruce, his sister Jane Jenevein and his brother-in-law Pat Jenevein, his nephews Patrick (Kathy), Bruce (Debbie), and Bob (Susan), and ten grand nieces and grand nephews. A memorial mass is planned for a later date. Donations in Dr. Bruce's memory may be directed to the Tulane University School of Science and Engineering for the Robert N. Bruce, Jr. Scholarship in Engineering.