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Bill Bruce was welcomed into the arms of his Lord and Savior while sleeping peacefully at his home in Del City on May 26, 2021. Born December 17,1935 in Seminole, he was the eighth child of F.H and Sarah Lou (Dixon) Bruce.
Bill was raised in the Salina area, and, though dirt poor, had a fun and fulfilling childhood because of his devoted mother and older sisters. He moved to OKC as a teen and lived with sister Hazel and her husband, Pat O’Brien, graduating from Central High School in 1953. He attended the University of Oklahoma for one year before enlisting in the U.S. Air Force in 1955 and serving until 1958 in Goose Bay, Canada.
Returning home, he used GI Bill benefits to earn a bachelor’s degree from Central State in 1964, becoming the first college graduate in his family. At college, he met and married Adella Josephine (Carlson) in 1962. Sadly, they lost their first son to miscarriage and then Bill lost both Della Jo and another son during childbirth on Sept 6, 1965.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and hears their prayers. A year later, Bill, while serving as the Chief of Campus Police at Central State, met undergrad Deborah (McWhirter) and they married on August 11, 1967. At the time of his death, they were married for 53 years.
During his early career, Bill worked for the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Department as a dispatcher and the Oklahoma City Police Department as an officer while working toward his law degree. He earned his Juris Doctorate from Oklahoma City University in 1969.
One of his most notable accomplishments as an attorney is that he argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in May 1976. Family always described Bill as a gentle and loving soul, except when arguing in a courtroom. A judge once commented that "if you cannot get along with Bill Bruce, you cannot get along with anybody."
He spent his career and life serving others. He served as a police officer, dispatcher and chief; attorney for the OK County District Attorney’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office; and finally as the Deputy Commissioner of the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety from which he retired in 2001. While teaching children and grandchildren to drive, he often remarked they shouldn’t argue with him because he truly wrote the law!
Bill was a devoted Christian and he and Debbie raised their two children at 12th and Drexel Church of Christ (now Boulevard Church of Christ) in OKC. Bill was a kind, gracious and loving husband, father, friend and Pops. To know him was to love and to be loved by him. He truly embodied the definition of unconditional love.
He was preceded in death by his first wife, Adella Josephine (Carlson) and their two sons, George Erland and an unnamed brother, his parents, his brothers: Vernon, Dwayne, Glen, Dale and Gerald and his sister, Hazel O’Brien.
Bill is survived by his wife Deborah, and their children: daughter Deena and John Warner of OKC; son Cory and Amy Bruce of Choctaw, OK; son Brandon and Leslie Hughes of Salina, KS; and daughter Rebecca and Dave Mills of Stevensville, MT; and sister Betty Cavner of OKC. His greatest blessings called him "Pops": his grandchildren, Sheena Sumpter, Kelsee & Mitchell Roberson, Ethan and Paden Hughes, Clancy, Addison and Camden Bruce, Kate and Josh Mills.
His great-grandchildren are Caelyn Sumpter, Carter Reed, Emery Mills, and Ender Roberson.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Choctaw Boy Scout Troop 275, c/o Harmony Christian Church, 7100 S Choctaw Road, Choctaw, OK 73020 or the Officer Down Memorial Fund at odmp.org. Memorial arrangements are pending and being handled by Barnes and Friederich Funeral Home.
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