Bruce Rosenblum

Bruce Rosenblum
May 20, 1926 - February 9, 2014
Resident of Santa Cruz
Bruce Rosenblum was born in New York City in 1926. He grew up in Croton-on-Hudson and Yonkers, New York. He served in the US Army from 1944-46. In 1957 he received a PhD in physics from Columbia University.
Bruce worked in the RCA research laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey on basic physics research and was also active in several commercial projects. During his decade at RCA, Bruce was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society.
Bruce, active in Democratic politics, was vice president of the West Windsor (NJ) Democratic Club, and was elected Democratic Township Committeeman. He later participated in several political campaigns in Santa Cruz.
Bruce left industrial research to join the faculty at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1966. He said that it was not an easy decision. He enjoyed industrial research, but was ready for a new venture.
At UCSC, Bruce served at various times as Chair of the Physics Department, Acting Provost of Stevenson College, Acting Dean of Science, and Chair of the Academic Senate. He was a fellow of Porter College where he delivered the commencement address in 1995.
His research at UCSC varied widely and included superconductivity, theoretical studies of magneto-reception in animals, and the foundations of quantum mechanics. This last interest led to the writing of "Quantum Enigma", a book suited to a general audience and also used as a textbook (Oxford University Press, 2006 and 2011).
Bruce was also an organizer and Associate Director of the UCSC Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Development (CIED). In that role, he co-taught courses on entrepreneurship in UCSC's Economics Department, while continuing his physics teaching. Sponsored by the Fulbright Commission, Bruce visited Brazil to advise universities there on the encouragement of entrepreneurship and university-industry interaction.
In the 1980s, Bruce and two colleagues started a consulting company. During summer breaks from academic duties, Bruce led consulting projects for both the federal government and corporations on a wide range of topics, such as: industrial robotics, genetic engineering, cancer-therapy evaluation, and the economics of electric substation upgrading.
Bruce was married to Carol Hamilton Kitchen from 1952-73. They had three children, Susan Webster, John Rosenblum, and Anne Lintz. In 1982, he married Phyllis Arozena, who had two children, Susan and Erik Nilsson. Besides Bruce's five children and stepchildren and their spouses, he is survived by his sister, Bea Larsen, and six grandchildren and a great-grandchild.
In the last couple of years, Bruce suffered increasing and intractable pain, recently getting worse daily. He ended his own life at the age of 87 on February 9, 2014.
Bruce requested there be no memorial service.