Bruce E. Troyer

1936 - 2008

Bruce was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and lived abroad as a child with his mother, Josephine, and father, Air Force Bird Col. Raymond Louis Troyer. He even spent a few years in Japan as a small boy. After graduating Perris High School in Riverside County, California, he joined the Navy, where he learned his lifelong occupation as an air traffic controller.

He met Dolores Gallegos in 1959 and the couple married in 1960. They welcomed their first child, Raymond Louis Troyer II, on Sept. 19, 1961, and their second child, Amy Beth Troyer, on March 12, 1963. The children were born in Las Vegas, Nev., where Mr. Troyer began his career. The FAA took the Troyers all over Southern California, and they spent five years in Sacramento, Calif.

In September 1980, Bruce and Dolores lost their only son, Ray, in a tragic car accident.

During the air traffic controller strike of the early 1980s, Mr. Troyer was the chief of the Oxnard Tower. Upon President Ronald Reagan's order to fire all striking air traffic controllers, Mr. Troyer was moved to the LAX radar room where he was the chief manager for just over 10 years. "My Dad knew everyone," his daughter recalls. "He was the funniest person I ever knew, a real prankster. He was larger than life, and he filled a room. I thought he was a movie star when I was a little girl — I had the handsomest Dad in the world. The Navy used his picture on an aircraft carrier as their advertisement for recruits. He had a huge heart. He was always secretly helping someone, and there were many families he looked after. He was a great guy, a man's man, always on a new motorcycle or showing off a new car. He had an incredible work ethic. He watched over millions of lives on his job; he was a brilliant multitasker."

"He loved music. He was a gifted athlete — one of those guys that did everything well. He was a runner. He ran three miles a day right up to the time he was hospitalized." After four years of confinement, he finally succumbed to a mysterious degenerative neurological disease on Sunday morning, Nov. 30, 2008.

He is survived by the mother of his son and daughter, Dolores Troyer; his daughter, Amy Troyer Williams , her husband Joseph Williams and three beloved granddaughters, Sarah, Hannah and Emma-Ray.

He will be missed. He is at peace with his heavenly father and reunited with his beloved son, Ray.

A memorial service will be held at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13, 2008, at Griffin Family Funeral Chapel in Camarillo, 1075 Daily Drive; phone 805-482-1166. Interment will be held privately in Sacramento.

The family would like to thank Professional Fiduciary/Conservator Sarah Jane Hardcastel for her compassionate overseeing of Bruce's care. "We thank God for her strength and guidance."