We first learned of Bruce’s passing from a posting made by his wife, Stephanie, on Facebook. For more than a year Stephanie has kept Bruce’s friends, admirers and acquaintances up to date with pictures and stories as he battled back from a serious illness. It was a roller coaster ride of epic proportions and one we all hoped wouldn’t end so soon.
Since then we’ve been struggling with what to write. You see, we never had the chance to know Bruce well. Like a lot of you, we knew of Bruce through his contributions to the Porsche community, his work with the PCA, his tech articles and stories in Excellence and other Porsche related magazines as well as his own books (his Porsche 911 Performance Handbook is considered a Bible to many air-cooled Porsche owners).
However, as Stephanie reminded us earlier today, we knew him more for his selfless desire to impart what knowledge he had to all those who sought him out. When we first started this site Bruce was one of the first people to write to us and comment and provide encouragement. If we had a technical question he didn’t hesitate to respond. He gave freely of his time and wisdom and asked for nothing in return. Thank you Bruce!
We will not try to memorialize Bruce in this short posting. Instead, those who knew him better will do so over the next days and weeks across a variety of mediums. The posts on Facebook are warm and heartfelt and threads on places like PelicanParts and Rennlist have already started. For someone who gave so much of himself, we just couldn’t do him justice.
Celebrate Bruce’s Life
A “Celebration of Life” is planned for May 12, 2013 (the day after the ALMS race at Laguna) at Bruce Canepa’s shop in Scotts Valley, CA. The event is tentatively scheduled from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and is open to all who knew Bruce and wish to help remember him. If you do plan on attending, Stephanie asked that you please let her know by emailing so she can keep an accurate head count. If anything changes with date, time or venue we will update this post accordingly.
[Original picture via Leonard Turner taken in Monterey at the 2009 Concours on the Avenue. Edited by FLATSIXES]
