Bruce Mansfield Beach
1934-2021
There are very few people who have lived a life as
unbelievable as Bruce Beach. Born April 14, 1934 in
Winfield, Kansas to Burt and Violet Beach, it was
clear from an early age that Bruce was not interested in
living his life ‘by the book,’ but chose instead to live a
‘storybook’ life, similar to the lives of the heroes in the
books he devoured as a young boy. Well beyond his
years, the young Bruce found himself more comfortable
in the company of adults than children his age, he was
respected by his teachers as an astute pupil, and was
bullied by his peers for not fitting in. For those who
knew him, ‘not fitting in’ was a phrase that not only
defined Bruce, it followed him throughout his life.
Bruce’s journey out of Kansas began when he decided
to drop out of high school halfway through his senior
year to join the military. Too young to enlist, Bruce
faked his parents signatures on the consent form that
would allow him to join the Air Force underage. As a
Buck Private, he found freedom in never aspiring to rise
above his rank, and when his time wasn’t consumed by
‘permanent KP duty,’ he was busy enrolling in advanced
radio training courses. It was in these courses, Bruce
would discover his love for computers, a path he would
continue to follow for the rest of his life.
Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Bruce met Maxine, a striking
local high school student who he fell in love with, and
within six weeks, they had decided to get married. Within
a year, Bruce and Maxine had their first child, Timothy.
After being deployed to Thule, Greenland at the height
of the Cold War, Bruce decided his military career was
over, and it was time to return to Kansas with his new
family. At the University of Wichita, Bruce studied
Philosophy (Absolute Idealism), as well as Institutional
Economics. In 1955, Bruce and Maxine had their
second child, Brenda in Winfield, and shortly after they
relocated to Chicago, Illinois.
In Chicago, Brian was born in 1958, and after Bruce
struggled to find steady work, he took Maxine and his
family back to Kansas.
At around this time, Bruce acquired a general
contractors license, and formed the American Shelter
Company where he would go on to build 22 bomb
shelters in Kansas, and one in Utah. Consumed by his
work, Bruce had little free time and it took its toll on
both his studies and marriage, before they had their last
child, Bradley in 1959.
After telling a friend who had tried to convert him
to Bahá’í he had no time to read, a sudden scooter
accident left Bruce with 14 broken bones, bedridden,
and miraculously, plenty of time to read. Once he
had finally recovered, Bruce’s shelter company was
practically shuttered, and he saw this as a sign. This was
the beginning of Bruce’s lifelong relationship with the
Bahá’í faith.
Bruce then resumed his studies at Southwestern College
in Kansas, graduated, and started his teaching career.
By 1961, Bruce and Maxine had separated and divorced.
Eventually, Bruce would graduate with a Masters in
Economics from Texas Christian University.
In 1962, on a trip to visit the Bahá’í temple in Willamette,
Illinois, Bruce first laid eyes on a volunteer usher who
took his breath away. Her name was Jean. At first, Jean
wasn’t as taken with Bruce as he was with her, but he
was persistent, and eventually managed to convince her
(and her father) he was the right man. Before long, Jean
relented, and the courtship began.
June 9th, 1962 in Wichita, Kansas, Bruce and Jean
were married. In 1965, they had their first child,
Bahia, in Provo, Utah, where Bruce was teaching at
a local college. A few years after that, Bruce & Jean
moved to Baltimore, Maryland where Bruce became
one of only a handful of White Professors at Morgan
State University, one of the nation’s most prestigious
historically Black colleges. Here, Bruce’s passion for
the Civil Rights movement got him into hot water with
college administrators, when he helped arrange a rally
with Civil Rights Activist Julian Bond. In 1968, while
still in Baltimore, Bruce and Jean welcomed their first
son, Bonnar, into the world.
In 1970, the opportunity presented itself for Bruce to
teach Computer Applications at Northern College in
Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada. In 1971 in Sault Ste.
Marie, Bruce and Jean had their second son, Bahji.
Around this time, Bruce’s long relationship with the
Canadian Government started to take seed. The first of
many Government grants Bruce would receive was for
a Computer Systems Development Project. Not long
after this, Bruce began work on developing a prototype
of the ‘Lightwriter,’ with help from engineers at world
renowned Bell Labs. The ‘Lightwriter’ was the first of
its kind: a portable computer that fit in a briefcase and
weighed only 17 lbs. Lost in the annals of Computing
History, the ‘Lightwriter’ never saw the light of day,
thanks to efforts of technology giant IBM to keep Xerox
and Bruce from partnering.
Shortly afterwards, Bruce and Jean returned to Jean’s
hometown of Horning’s Mills, Ontario. Here, Bruce
would embark on a life-defining project motivated by
his growing concern for nuclear war, coupled with his
background building underground shelters. In 1979, on
land in Jean’s family since the turn of the century, Bruce
buried the first school bus that would eventually grow
to a total of 42 buses, interconnected, and buried under
14 feet of earth and concrete. Eventually christened
‘Ark Two,’ the shelter would attract worldwide
attention, visitors, reporters, TV crews, SWAT teams,
bureaucrats, and fire brigades, making life for the Beach
family ‘interesting,’ to say the least.
As Bruce’s renown grew with the world’s fascination
with ‘Ark Two,’ he embarked on a never-ending thread
of projects that included authoring a number of books
on reconstructing society after its collapse, and computer
programming. Bruce also set in motion the most
ambitious project of his life – one he would work on until
the day he passed away – was the blueprint for a Universal
Auxiliary Language. The UAL would take Bruce around
the world, on side-projects like The Canada’s Tomorrow
Discovery Corporation that led to partnerships with men
like Dr. Robert Ballard, the oceanographer famous for
discovering the wreck of the Titanic.
Throughout his life, Bruce Beach was many different
things to many different people: an eccentric, a futurist,
an iconoclast, a visionary, an inventor, a Professor,
a father, a husband, a grandfather, a devout Bahá’í.
Bruce’s exceptional life spanned many decades, and his
accomplishments are voluminous.
In passing – as it was in life – Bruce had the exceptional
talent of bringing people together. As we are now brought
together in remembrance of Bruce and his exceptional
life, our hearts and minds will most certainly turn to the
Beach Residence as our ‘home away from home.’ It was
Bruce and Jean who generously welcomed anyone willing
to show up, and what we were given in exchange for our
“sweat equity” was not only a welcome retreat from the
outside world, it was Bruce’s energy, his ideas, and his
optimism that gave us hope for a better future.
Bruce devoted his life to his vision of Reconstruction, a
new dawn for Civilization, and he took immense pride
in the name he came up with to describe what he felt
defined him best: The Dawnsayer.
As we greet a new dawn without Bruce, there is no
doubt the inspiration he left behind will live on in our
hearts forever. Rest in peace our dearest friend, teacher,
Father, Grandfather, Great-Grandfather, Great-great
Grandfather, and champion of life.
In addition to his incredible legacy, Bruce leaves behind
his beloved wife Jean Beach, his children Timothy
Beach (and his wife Anna), Brenda Stewart (and her
husband Rick), Brian Beach, Bahia Beach Eldner,
Bxonnar Beach, his grandchildren Justin, Muier, Tia,
Nicholas, Thomas, Daniel, Joslyn, Jennifer, Issac,
Tamara, Molly, Shayna, and Evan, in addition to twelve
great grandchildren, and one great great grandchild.
Read Less
2021
Nos plus sincères sympathies à la famille et aux amis de Bruce Mansfield Beach 2021..
Décès pour la Ville:SHELBURNE, Province: Ontario