Russell John Bruno

1925 - 2024

Russell John Bruno
September 22, 1925 - January 1, 2024
In the early morning of the New Year, Russ Bruno, 98, passed on. He was home, with family. He was, and is, loved beyond measure.
Russ grew up in the small town of Groton, in the Finger Lake District of New York state. Groton was a typical "company town," home to the Smith Corona Typewriter Company. In his youth Russ worked for the company as a pin setter at the Corona Club bowling alley, earning 15 cents a game.
Upon graduating from high school in 1943, Russ enlisted in the Navy, following his older brother Robert who played trombone for the Navy Band during World War II. Russ ultimately was stationed in San Diego at the North Island Naval Air Station where he served as an aviation machinist's mate for the duration of the war.
Taking advantage of the GI Bill after the war, Russ attended Cornell University, graduating with a BA and MBA. Those degrees took him to Washington D.C., where he worked as a personnel analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency. There he met his first wife Betty Ann Cain. After several years they moved to the Bay Area so Russ could attend law school at U.C. Berkeley's Boalt Hall (now Berkeley Law). With law degree in hand, worked as assistant dean of the law school and also successfully represented a criminal defendant on appeal in a case that reached the California Supreme Court: People v. Havens (applying exclusionary rule principles and precedents to overturn Haven's criminal conviction).
Thereafter Russ pursued a private law practice in Oakland and became deeply involved in local affairs. He was active in the Oakland Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law; served as legal adviser to the Narcotics Education League and sat on the advisory board of the Minorities Alcohol Treatment Alternative; and was an officer and director of the Democratic Lawyers Club of Alameda County.
Along the way Russ and Betty Ann had three sons - Daniel, Kalani and Steve – all of whom attended Oakland Public Schools. Russ's involvement in local public school affairs led to his serving on the Oakland School Board from 1977-1981.
In addition to his civic endeavors, Russ also began exploring his life-long passion for photography, building his own dark room and processing and printing his work. He also mastered the movements for a form of tai chi, finding immense pleasure and benefit in that exercise.
Russ and Betty Ann eventually terminated their marriage but remained good friends throughout their lives. Russ met Susanne Lea in 1976, they moved to their home on Bayo Street in Oakland with Susanne's son Arlo Weil, married, and had one son, Nicholas Lea Bruno. Russ and Susanne had a deep love and appreciation for one another, room in their hearts to forgive and challenge one another, and the capacity to survive heartbreak together. In 1981 Russ opened law offices in Pleasant Hill and, as a newly certified Family Law Specialist, focussed solely on family law.
Once retired, Russ continued developing and pursuing multiple interests: he was truly a Renaissance man. He studied algebra; wrote short stories; took piano and drawing lessons; showed the family's champion soft-coated wheaten terrier; dug a well for the garden; coached his son's soccer team; was a ham radio operator; kept bees and processed honey, tending up to five hives; sang bass in the Montclair Presbyterian Church choir; tutored at local elementary schools and was an anchor in the church's children's food basket program; read books for LibriVox and learned the technicalities of sound editing; tutored at local elementary schools; and volunteered at Chabot Space & Science Center.
Russ was a genuine, grounded, trustworthy, empathetic man who loved and cared for his extended family in ways both large and small. His sense of humor - often wry or dry - would be hard to cap. At times, he could be a prankster. Russ leaves behind a beloved family: wife Susanne; sons Daniel; Kalani Das (wife - Tomoko and stepsons- Bruce and Jason); Steve and Nicholas; stepson Arlo (wife Sarah and daughters - Kyla and Aryn); granddaughter Chelsea Highsmith; and many nieces and nephews and their families. Please join us at Montclair Presbyterian Church, 5701 Thornhill Drive in Oakland at 1 p.m. on Saturday, February 3 for the celebration of Russ's life. In place of flowers the family encourages donations to your favorite environmental or social justice organization, or the Alameda County Food Bank.