Joseph Bruce Nelson
Thetford Center, VT — Joseph Bruce Nelson, an American historian whose work focused on 20th Century labor and its intersection with the concepts of race, class and nationhood, both in the U.S. and in Ireland, died June 24, 2022, in White River Junction, Vermont. The cause was Lewy Body Dementia. He was 81 years old.
Known as Bruce, he was the third and youngest child of Doris Savage Nelson and Joseph Nelson. He was born in Flushing, NY, on August 9, 1940, and was raised in the Manhasset Bay Area of Long Island. As a student of religion at Princeton University he became interested in the civil rights movement, particularly Martin Luther King Jr., the religious dimensions of his narrative and his vision of a redeemed American society.
Upon graduation from Princeton in 1962, he moved to the West Coast, where he attended San Francisco Theological Seminary and began to work in a predominantly Black church. This environment, so different from the segregated environments of his youth, shaped him in profound ways that guided all of his career and life choices from that point forward. As he said in an interview in 2015, "I entered a totally different world and never looked back. "
In 1962, Bruce married Donna Robinson, and they settled in the San Francisco Bay Area, where they would raise their family. This marriage produced Bruce's greatest pride and joy– his children and grandchildren– and it was the beginning of a life-long partnership with his wife and biggest supporter. To all of their friends, they were known, collectively, as "Bruce and Donna. "
In 1965, answering Dr. King's call for "people of good will" to come to Selma following the events of "Bloody Sunday", he traveled to Alabama with a group of clergy. In Selma, he was arrested outside the mayor's home and sent back to California before he could participate in the Voting Rights March. Fifty years later, he fulfilled his dream of crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge when he returned to Selma, accompanied by his daughter and granddaughter.
Passionate about working for justice, he became more and more involved in the social movements of the day and eventually left seminary to study history at UC Berkeley, where he earned an MA. He interrupted his graduate studies to pursue his movement work. For nine years he focused on anti-war and labor movements, working in factories, warehouses and docks, and was involved in union work with the UAW, Longshore workers, and US Postal workers.
In 1982 he received his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. His dissertation turned book, "Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen and Unionism in the 1930's," won the Frederick Jackson Turner award from the Organization of American Historians. Bruce went on to teach at UC Davis, Middlebury College, and Dartmouth College, where he became a Full Professor and taught for 24 years. At Dartmouth, he won the Distinguished Teaching Award, the Class of 1962 Faculty Fellowship for excellence in Scholarship and Teaching, and the Robert A. Fish 1918 Memorial Prize. During his time at Dartmouth, he was awarded numerous research fellowships from organizations including the Guggenheim Foundation, the Carter G. Woodson Foundation, the Wilson Center, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. This research time allowed him to write two more books, "Divided We Stand: American Workers and the Struggle for Black Equality" in 2000 and "Irish Nationalists and the Making of the Irish Race" in 2012.
He was a deeply dedicated teacher, devoted to the learning and welfare of his students. Described by his colleagues as friendly, warm, and fierce, with a voice of conscience and fairness, he engaged in social justice campaigns at Dartmouth in support of students and their movements. He was generous with his time, and many of his students at Dartmouth remember him as a favorite teacher and one who shaped their life and career choices. He was fortunate to run the History Department's study abroad program in London three times, which led to his nurturing a love of the UK, and particularly Ireland, where his mother's family was from.
This new focus on Ireland, combined with his interest and scholarship on race and identity, led to his research and teaching courses on the Irish, Ireland and Irish immigrants in the U.S. These later additions to his research and teaching brought together personal life history and scholarship in ways that were profoundly enriching to him as he traveled to Ireland often and developed many rewarding relationships with fellow scholars.
A lifelong athlete, Bruce played Lacrosse in high school (Choate) and college (Princeton) and brought his passion for the game to the San Francisco Bay Area at a time where few there knew of the sport. In 1975 he began recruiting elementary school and middle school students in Oakland and taught them the game. Soon, Oakland Youth Lacrosse was born. Eventually, club teams were formed at Montera Jr. High and Skyline High School. The first teams he started used gear he bought himself and kept in his home and transported to practice and games in his iconic red Volkswagen bus. Later, he grew this passion into a small business - Lacrosse Sporting Goods of Northern California. Using his VW Bus and his home, he was known as the "go-to" guy to obtain all manner of lacrosse equipment. Nobody else at the time was selling lacrosse equipment, and his foray into the business filled a void.
Bruce recruited and coached a diverse group of boys, who found inspiration and comfort in his leadership and coaching. Many on his teams went on to play lacrosse in college, and a number have become coaches themselves. The community he formed persists to this day: Bruce's players continue to remark his influence on their lives, and the Oakland Lacrosse Club annually awards an outstanding student athlete the Bruce Nelson Award for their play, their team spirit, and overall sportsmanship.
After retiring from Dartmouth in 2009, Bruce became a faculty leader for a number of Dartmouth Alumni trips to Ireland, France, and other European countries, for which he researched and delivered lectures on important historic moments and movements related to the tour destinations. These trips allowed him to continue to expand the range of his scholarship and, as important, to enjoy these destinations with his beloved Donna. He and she made many new friends in all parts of the world across the decade that he supported this program.
Finally, Bruce was passionate about his family. From his interest in his mother's birth origins and family to his many, many cousins, nieces and nephews and beloved grandchildren he was a dedicated brother, son, husband, father, and grandfather. In the years following his retirement he spent as much time as possible in California, Maine, Boston, and his home state of Vermont with family and friends. Always interested in learning about others he made friends everywhere he went. He lived out the last year of his life on the memory care floor of the Village at White River Junction. Bruce's family is forever grateful for all the wonderful caregivers at the Village who not only cared for Bruce but loved him. He remained gregarious, humorous, and gracious until the end.
He leaves his wife of 59 years, Donna Nelson, daughter Ellen Nelson van Bever (Derek), son Chris Nelson (Caroline) and 6 grandchildren: Grace, Owen and Graham van Bever and Kyle, Liam and Gavin Nelson. Predeceased by his brother Alan Nelson and sister Joan Lindgren Nelson, he also leaves many loving cousins, nieces and nephews, friends, former students and lacrosse players, and many loving friends and neighbors in Thetford, VT, where he and Donna lived for 37 years.
Plans for a memorial service in the fall are being determined. Condolences may be expressed to Bruce's family in an online guestbook at
www.knightfuneralhomes.com. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations in Bruce's name may be made to The Upper Valley Haven 713 Hartford Ave., White River Junction, VT 05001 or the Oakland Lacrosse Club 638 3rd St, Oakland, CA 94607.
Published by Valley News on Jul. 7, 2022.