Bruce Brown Burkhart was born in Dayton, Ohio on December 13, 1944. The eldest child of Charles and Juanita Burkhart, Bruce was an independent, curious (okay, mischievous), and athletic child. While growing up on East Ridgeway with his younger brother Rick and his baby sister Becky, Bruce made several friendships that proved to be lifelong. He attended Centerville High School, where he was a gifted catcher for the Elks baseball team. Like most young catchers in the 1950s, he idolized Yogi Berra and “8” was his favorite number for the rest of his life. After graduating high school in 1963, Bruce attended Wilmington College, where he majored in Finance and was a member of the Tau Kappa Beta fraternity that would later provide his daughter’s initials. While at Wilmington, he began dating Bonnie Engleka, who was still attending high school in Centerville. They were married on April 17, 1965, and welcomed their first child, Greg, in November of that year. (It would be many, many years before Greg did the math). Bruce graduated from Wilmington in 1967 and moved his family to Pennsylvania after taking a job with Ralston Purina. While there, Bruce and Bonnie welcomed their daughter Trina to the family in 1969. After another move, this time to New Jersey, Bruce accepted a position at NCR and moved his family back home to Ohio, settling in the small town of Springboro. From there he spent most of his career as a Controller for several Dayton area companies.

 

Bruce was active in the Springboro community from the beginning. He was the first president of the Springboro Jaycees, served a term as president of the community swim club, and later served on the city zoning board. He volunteered as a Little League coach, a starter for the swim team, and an announcer for Springboro High School football games.

 

He was a proud father. While not a strict disciplinarian, Bruce did ground Greg for life multiple times (in Greg’s defense, I must add that these groundings were arbitrary and undeserved). Trina, meanwhile, was the apple of his eye. As proud a father as he was, Bruce was a prouder grandfather, never failing to make Lindsey, Anna, Wyatt, and Leah the center of his universe.

 

With friends, Bruce was often the life of the party. Parties at the Burkhart’s were common in both Tamarack and Sycamore Creek. After being introduced to Holden Beach, NC by his neighbor and dear friend, Bruce spread the love and introduced countless other friends to the joys of the southern North Carolina barrier island, overseeing a frightful annual initiation for new attendees. Despite his independent streak, Bruce was not above participating in fads. When mooning experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 70s, Bruce could be counted on to show his ass. And that same decade, when American men lost their collective minds and decided “perms” were a good idea, he didn’t let his rapidly receding hairline stop him from jumping on that ill-fated bandwagon either. Later in life, when he was too old to care about fads (and Bonnie wasn’t around to stop him), he invented his own. Gems like using shower curtains as window and wall decorations and turning a chicken crate into a coffee table.

 

Bruce stayed in Springboro for a time after losing his beloved wife Bonnie in 2010 but eventually struck out on his own to fulfill their dream of retiring to Florida. Despite spending his last five years there, he never failed to show up in Ohio or Virginia when a grandchild was graduating, embarking on a new journey, or just needed some papaw time. Like his golf swing, Bruce was truly one of a kind. He was deeply loved and is greatly missed.