"I'm saddened to have not personally made Bruce's acquaintance. No matter, his accomplishments will remain an inspiration to us all."

Respectfully,

- gaero e3

“A great man, a great rider."

From a big, huge fan from Italy,

- Nicola DeSantis

- Rusty Sanderson, #27 District 37 Desert Turtle

“The first time I met Bruce was at the end of pretty ridiculous hero section in the 1989 New Hampshire Charity Classic. I was junk—bonked and ready to limp back to the start. At the end of the section there was a guy in jeans with his helmet off sitting on a big, shiny 650 with dual-sport tires, blinkers, and the full street package. He asked, “What did you think of that?” I told him what I thought and recommended he not attempt that loop with that bike or he’d be walking out if he came out at all. He smiled and said, “Oh, I already did it. And you’re right, it is pretty tight in there.”

I knew he had to be mistaken since there was no way anyone could get through there on that bike. And even if, by some miracle, he did make it through, there was no way they’d look as clean as this guy.

We sat and talked a few more minutes, and then he put on his helmet and took off down the trail to the hero section despite my well-intentioned warnings. I was wondering what kind of stories we’d hear at the banquet that night about the lunatic who took a 650 street machine into the third hero section.

The banquet stories weren’t what I expected. The emcee was one of the club members working this most abusive of hero sections and he watched as Bruce went through not twice, but six times. Apparently Bruce was trying to clean the section with no dabbing and just couldn’t seem to get it done in five tries.

I was humbled and impressed. Bruce could have handled my ignorance and lack of skill a hundred ways and he just acted like a good trail buddy that you'd known for years. He was truly an ambassador for the sport.”

- Jim Bird, New Hampshire Trail Rider

"I knew Bruce as a fellow industry regular in off-road related events. Every time I saw Bruce, I would shake his hand...not only from a rider respect standpoint but also because of his industry accomplishments.

Bruce and I competed in similiar events--ISDE was one we both cared for alot--and my background was MX and Bruce's was Baja and Desert.

I resigned from Suzuki and Bruce called me within a week to ride for his team and it was definitely a highlight of my career. Marcia I have known for quite some time before Bruce met her, and I worked with her brother Mark, also.

Felt bad about Bruce going through all his treatments but knew if anyone could pull through it would be him.

All the best to the family!"

- Charles Halcomb, Bruce's friend and team rider

“Many people know Bruce for racing; I know him for his love of family and humor.

My mother is his wife Marcia’s sister and we always came to visit them during either the summer or for Christmas. Bruce’s family loves mexican food, so much as to make it for Christmas dinner. Some things I had never seen or even wanted to attempt to eat was on the menu that night: quesidillas, enchiladas, taquitos; you name it, they had it.

Now my family and I are not much of the Mexican food fanatics and at the end of dinner we were starving. We couldn’t stand the growling stomachs much longer, so we told Bruce and Marcia that we were going to the pier and went to Denny’s for Christmas dinner.

His family also loves a place Bruce called “The Noodle House.” He was so excited the one summer we came down to take us there. We all got our food and Bruce made sure to tell us to “make sure to slurp our noodles because it tells the cooks that we think our food is good.” So we slurped our food for appreciation and laughed. I still do not know if what he told us is true.

Bruce was someone I like to call somewhat sarcastic. The summer before Bruce died we came down and I thought it would be nice to clean the house while everyone was gone. Bruce had been going through radiation on his jaw and was resting in his room but as soon as I turned on the vacuum he scrambled out of his bedroom and looked at me like I had preformed some sort of miracle. I turned off the vacuum and asked him if everything was alright and he said to me with a smile on his face, “At least someone knows how to clean in this house. I didn't even know that vacuum still worked!”

- Megan Arvidson, Bruce’s Neice